for the start of term. the city's mayor said the government had ‘finally seen sense‘ research confirms the new coronavirus variant discovered in the uk has a much quicker rate of transmission — the variant has now been identified in at least 18 countries around the world. if the new variant is now present, with this increase in the r number, all of a sudden instead of a decrease of 30%, we get a massive increase, the number of cases over the same period could triple. so, this is more or less the most serious change in the virus that we've seen. the us struggles to roll out the covid vaccine — as the number of cases continues to surge to above 20 million — according to thejohn hopkins university. nearly 350,000 americans have died.

hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. with me are jason beattie, assistant editor at the daily mirror and olivia utley, assistant comment editor at the daily telegraph. tomorrow's front pages starting with. .. a warning to the british public from the nhs fronts tomorrow's i. the paper says hospital admissions for covid—19 could double by the ‘peak of this third wave‘. the daily mail lead with the news that some doctors will rebel against the governments new advice about the time inbetween the two doses of the pfizer vaccine. keeping vaccines in mind, the times reports that two million doses of the oxford vaccine are going to be available every week by the middle ofjanuary bringing hope to many. school closures dominate the front of the telegraph. they say teachers are demanding the closure of every school in the country

after gavin williamson caved in to pressure to shut all primaries in london. that government u—turn on schools is also front and center on tomorrow's guardian. the paper says it's down to growing pressure over the coronavirus and the ever growing pressure on the nhs. the express says ‘brexit britain to bounce back‘ as the prime minister pledges to ‘rebuild' with thousands more police, nurses and teachers. and the daily mirror looks back at new years eve and what they call the ‘raving mad reckless revellers‘ who partied on despite warnings from the government. so let's begin... thank you both forjoining us this evening. happy new year also to you both. let's start with the guardian,

you first of alljason schools obviously very much front and centre of these front pages, and the guardian here talking about the pressure growing on number ten to do a u—turn on all schools in the country. this is a very difficult one. nobody wants to disrupt education further. it's come you know it's a badly disrupted already. it has consequences for generations to come, and yet we now know that this new mutant form of the virus is spreading very rapidly commit spreading very rapidly commit spreading in the under 20s. you got this difficult decision to make of do you keep students and teachers safe, do you control the virus, but you've got to balance that against the damage which you could do to children in public education. what i would say is gavin williams and the education secretary has not covered himself in glory here. the u—turn on

primary schools in london was inevitable. and you only had to talk toa inevitable. and you only had to talk to a few people to realise why it wasn't working. because london has 32 boroughs, lots of parents live in one borough and send their children to another and could not understand why when you are travelling from one to really consider children to one school that was open and the other was closed. i can see the logic of that but the question is now is does extended to other areas which had a primary schools closed, parts of essex for example, and can't answer difficult decision. absolutely, neck actively agreed that kevin williamson does not serve to be covered himself in gloryjust always seems to be on the back foot. ellie seems to be on the back foot. ellie seems to be that gavin williamson case had to pressure from teachers unions and if you laid out the beat numbers to the beginning and separate the benchmark was committee was much more clear if there was

much clearer on to what extent primary school pupils are spreading this, because it's become fully clear that teenagers are spreading this event therein, but he seems to a lwa ys this event therein, but he seems to always be responding in a very proactive. it is just always be responding in a very proactive. it isjust sort of made a nonsense of his policy asjason says. what you think and what do you think that if it's good enough or london it's got enough for the rest of the country? the new mutant form of the country? the new mutant form of virus is now in almost all parts of virus is now in almost all parts of the country. the rates of infection are higher in many parts of the country than in the capital. i can't understand the logic of saying you have to close primary schools in one part of the country and not the other. but this is a big thing. if you are going to close primary schools and potentially be secondary schools, they've delayed it twice now for the start date for the majority of pupils, that could

be kind of extended further. what is in place to make sure they don't fall behind in their learning? do you think it's different this time is schools have caught up in terms of getting their own learning to their pupils if a bit more organised now, do you think they're more ready than they were back in easter?|j think than they were back in easter?” think they are but there's this problem that secondary school pupils isa problem that secondary school pupils is a light you can do with on the learning but primary school is a massive problem. for five—year—olds is quite difficult and i've been a teacher for that so she feels like she's a tv presenter for kidsjust sitting there while they wander around the rooms. they are tiny, they can't really learn online. that's what really matters. usually little children, but because they are learning a lot more than spelling or grammar, they are learning how to socialise and meet people, how to talk quite often, how to develop. and they are not really getting that experience. in its early years learning a subject particularly important, and it's

very difficult to do online. however prepared schools are, as not falling just as teachers, but it's very difficult to get this working. it cannotjust difficult to get this working. it cannot just keep schools closed in gavin williamson has to make very clear how it's going to replace that learning time, is it going to stretch of the holidays? that's been flooded as an idea but he just can't be seen to be caving to the unions. if there are particularly, in london chases right and it's mad to close on boroughs and others, but he can't just say it teaches unicef said that's closed let's to it, he's got to give us figures and numbers and say why, what positions he's making instead. we're just not seeing any of that at the moment. doctor verbal onjabs, this of that at the moment. doctor verbal on jabs, this is of that at the moment. doctor verbal onjabs, this is about of that at the moment. doctor verbal on jabs, this is about the fact that family doctors attend to the government we are not going to not give a second jab to some of these patients who have put their trust in us patients who have put their trust in us and ourcoming patients who have put their trust in us and our coming in over the next few days to receive their boost of

vaccine jab. instead of doing with the government says which is suggesting that we try to roll out as many first vaccines to people as possible rather than giving people a second vaccine. with review, jason? i've had some sympathy for the doctors and i have a lot of sympathy for people who are expecting both jabs. ican for people who are expecting both jabs. i can understand the reasons why they made this decision to offer the first vaccination to as many people as possible, and the astrazeneca vaccine has a 70% effectiveness rate, and that's better than most flu shots, and if you want to give people reassurance is not a bad thing to do. but the problem here is i think the mail has slowly pointed out is that they were promised to back jabs slowly pointed out is that they were promised to backjabs and for a patient point of view a lot of them, particularly visually for some time

any of the underlying health condition maybe, you are not going to get the reassurance you want with ajab to get the reassurance you want with a jab that's 70% effective as opposed to if you have both doses which is of the 95% effective. that's what this whole idea ofjust getting one in isolation falls apart. and i can see why doctors trust if your patient is very important, and they are resisting this. do you think doctors are right to resist this move? it's a really tricky one. i think it's one of these policies that on a national level i can completely see where the government is doing and it does seem to make a lot of sense. when you have this new strain spreading very quickly one way or another the vaccines are not getting to people fa st vaccines are not getting to people fast enough to make them immune. it seems to make more sense on a national level to be vaccinating as many people as possible as quickly as possible and to be getting immunityjust as possible and to be getting immunity just up as possible and to be getting immunityjust upa as possible and to be getting immunityjust up a little bit. but on the individual level as jason quite rightly says is the people who have been saying inside, and the

government rightly has been very scared and made them stay inside with horrible year. and they're not desperate, terrified and really want this full immunity. they were promised that no spain taken away. that does seem cruel. as often happens there's been no real clash between the personal perspective at the national perspective. 0ne make sense to one another to the other. very difficult to see how you rectify the two. the daily telegraph front page, this is claims by the government that the reason why we are not caring about as many vaccinations as one would hope is because of supply problems with drugs companies. however pfizer and astrazeneca, the two firms manufacturing the vaccines that there's no problem with supply, what exactly is going on here, jason?” was hoping you were going to turn to 0livia, it's our paper. was hoping you were going to turn to

olivia, it's our paper. i did my first shift there on monday, not quite in the know you are yet. very difficult to go on —— you know what's going on. they are suggesting that as an inside source of the telegraph saying that they've got 3 million doses of the vaccine and vials ready to go, and millions more ready to go in vials for their final stage of their safety checks, and they are think the problems are all on the distribution end. the government seems to be blaming the drug companies and it does seem to be pretty clear that our vaccination many fracturing levels were not good enough before the pandemic started. not that that's the fault of vaccine manufacturers isjust not that that's the fault of vaccine manufacturers is just received not that that's the fault of vaccine manufacturers isjust received a outsourced quite a lot of our vaccine production to other companies that allow what your company to concentrate on things like cancer protection. what are drug companies. it does seem that it would not quite be there yet. now it looks like where this stage it does seem to be the astrazeneca are producing pretty quickly, it might be distributor problem. honestly

cannot quite get to the bottom of this. it could just be the government is claiming the drug companies, they are blaming the government and no one is quite sure. hopefully these are just teething problems are to be ironed out quite quickly we have to wait and see what develops. who to believe was yellow very good question. a medicament of the times because they've got this story about getting 2 million doses a week by mid—january. the danger here from the government is that yet again they are raising host with they can't deliver on. and, you know, everybody hopes that they can roll out the vaccine programmes at the scale they are promising. but if they cannot and you find that the fault is with the lack of logistics, the lack of oversight, the managerial side of doing government, this would look pretty bad, all the

problems they had to be getting for rolling out protective kits and the problems they had with the test entry system. and i would be if i was the government i would look at that times headline and not sure it's a positive one for them. it is perhaps meant to be but you can see it as perhaps meant to be but you can see itasa perhaps meant to be but you can see it as a hostage of fortune. that's what they have got to be very careful. 0ne what they have got to be very careful. one other point i would make on this is this question important one. while you've got this hope and promise of a vaccine it's much harder to actually enforce social distancing measures. because people think well, you know, they're coming over here why do i need to behave? you have this double bind of trying to keep things in place by also saying to people it's not long now, until get better. olivia do you agree with that committee think that's hanging over people in the way that they behave?”

that's hanging over people in the way that they behave? i would like to talk to a behavioural scientist about this, i would've thought the opposite and that if the government said now it will be a freedom day on the 4th of june said now it will be a freedom day on the 4th ofjune or whatever but don't quote me on that, if they were to say that you could all go out to your shopping and see her friends that will be our wonderful independence day with fireworks etc etc, i would love it will be more willing to stay through the restrictions for a few months can be because they know there's an end date and as it is i would have thought that people would just feel this is interpretable, it can't go on, each is going to roll on and on and as we'll go and see my friends. i'm not 100% sure. be interested to talk to a behavioural scientist but i thinkjason's absolutely right about the government just seeming to have a cycle of overpromising and under delivering. in addition, peace in the telegraph from fraser nelson saying the insiders said that boris johnsonjust saying the insiders said that boris johnson just absently hates delivering bad news, he's such an optimist and just the thing at the end ofa optimist and just the thing at the end of a press conference he would just come out with something like

well —— just come out with something like well — — world just come out with something like well —— world beating test entry syste m well —— world beating test entry system at the officials are saying where did this come from? they have to run to up basically. so i think that's definitely true and it's a hostage of fortune. we will see. we will indeed. we run out of time and i think you both of you to see you again and about 45 minutes' time for some more papers. thank you to you both. and thank you to you from watching. it's goodbye for me. let's be honest, it hasn't been the best year for travel. but amid the gloom, we've still found moments of inspiration and seen parts of the world, albeit sometimes virtually, that would take your breath away.

laughs.