The “decrepitude” of many British high streets is leaving residents “angry”, said The Sunday Times. They either see lines of “shuttered” premises or “garish kebab shops”, as small retailers struggle with the rise in online shopping, business rates and out-of-town retail parks. 

The decline of the high street is voters’ second-biggest concern, polling suggests. But “to the evident frustration of many MPs and local councillors”, the issue “has not been anywhere near the top of the agenda” for either the Labour or the Conservative leadership. Their “relative silence” is worrying for local councillors who have “Reform snapping at their heels”. 

‘Torrent of closures’
Retailers have been “feeling the squeeze” since the pandemic and, last year, 57 went bust, resulting in the loss of more than 3,380 shops, according to the Centre for Retail Research. “Shoppers were stunned by a torrent of high-street closures and collapses,” that included “iconic outlets” such as Claire’s, Poundland and WH Smith, said The Sun.

Labour’s increase to employers’ National Insurance contributions, which takes effect in April, is predicted to increase costs for retailers by £2.3 billion. “It is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020,” said Joshua Bamfield, the Centre’s director.

‘Another opportunity’ for Reform
It is “mind-boggling” that, before its recent U-turn, the government was set on putting up business rates by 76% for the average pub, compared with 4% for large supermarkets, said John Harris in The Guardian. And after years of cuts, local councils “can barely meet their most basic responsibilities, let alone lead the reinvention of the places they run”.

“Woven into the fate of town and city centres is something that a lot of progressives avert their eyes from,” said Harris. “As many high streets have become dead zones, organised criminals have moved in.” This has “presented yet another opportunity” to Reform UK. The party has already promised to declare a “high-street emergency” and shut down illicit shops. The country’s high streets are “such a visible sign” of decline, said Luke Akehurst, Labour MP for North Durham. “Either we have to have visible progress on this or seats like mine will fall to Reform.”

A hugely controversial Israeli settlement project, with a bypass road that closes off the occupied West Bank to Palestinians, has cleared planning hurdles and is out for tender.

Thousands of homes are to be built in the E1 area east of Jerusalem, in a move that will effectively divide the West Bank. And, in doing so, it will “bury the idea of a Palestinian state”, said Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich.

What is E1?
First proposed in the 1990s but, until now, frozen by pressure from the US, E1 covers the tract of desert between East Jerusalem and the large Israeli settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim. “It would be the last link in a chain of building projects that will slice the West Bank in half, and sever it” from East Jerusalem, which “Palestinians hope one day will be the capital of their independent state”, said The Telegraph.

The public tender proposes 3,401 housing units and a dual-use bypass road that is “designed as a sealed transit corridor for Palestinian vehicles”, said The Guardian. This provides Israel “with a pretext to bar Palestinians from existing roads in the planned settlement area”. Israeli politicians have named the planned bypass “sovereignty road”; its opponents call it “apartheid road”.

Is it legal?
The Palestinian authorities, and much of the international community, have repeatedly called all Israeli settlements illegal, but this has not stopped their rapid expansion in the West Bank since Israel seized control of the territory in 1967.

E1 falls outside the Green Line, which distinguishes Israel from Palestine in the eyes of the international community. This means that, although Israel has military and civil control of the area, granted by the Oslo Accords in the 1990s, it is not sovereign Israeli territory.

Despite the International Court of Justice repeatedly ruling that Israel’s settlements should be withdrawn, “there is no sign of that happening”, said Reuters. And “by linking up with other Israel-controlled areas”, the E1 settlement “would go still further”.

That is the “real concern right now”, said The Independent when a number of countries, including the UK, formally recognised the Palestinian state last year. “Without concrete action”, recognising statehood is ultimately “pointless, as there won’t be anything left to be a state”.

Macaques soak in an open-air hot spring at Hokkaido’s Hakodate Tropical Botanical Garden. Japan’s northernmost island has been hit by heavy snow and strong winds in recent days, causing chaos for its human residents and visitors.

BJ Warnick / Newscom / Alamy Live News

“They grow up so fast, don’t they?” said Michael Hogan in The Telegraph. “Call the Midwife” is now 15 seasons old, and has become “a TV lynchpin”. Beneath its “cosy exterior”, the “East-End childbirth saga” remains “one of the most radical, rousing shows” on television. Expertly blending the “personal and political” in a kind of “historical soap opera”, it’s both “hard-hitting and heartfelt in equal measure”.

In the latest series, we return to the Nonnatus House team in 1971, as the women’s liberation movement gathers pace in London’s Poplar. While the younger midwives are “enthusiastically” burning their bras and joining protests, the older generation “take some convincing”.

What a “corker” the opening episode is, said Carol Midgley in The Times. It moves “seamlessly” from “dry wit to darkest misery and back again”, reminding us how “deceptively uncosy” the show can be. It “never sugar-coats” the serious stuff. 

“Call the Midwife” should come with “some kind of emotional warning” that “side effects will include uncontrollable weeping”, said Janet A. Leigh on Digital Spy. After so many seasons, it’s a testament to the show that it still “holds the power to make us cry”.

This 15th series is a “return to form” after the “middling” Christmas specials, said Hogan in The Telegraph. This is “superior comfort viewing” with an excellent female-led cast. Even now, “Call the Midwife” can “still delight and surprise”.

How should you talk to someone you disagree with?
Anjana Ahuja in the Financial Times
“Framing matters” when discussing “contentious issues”, writes Anjana Ahuja. Researchers have found that “declaring what you oppose, rather than what you support, is likely to play more positively” with “those who disagree with you”. That’s “welcome fresh thinking” for how to build “what currently seem like impossible bridges” across “ideological divides”. In our “polarised world”, where algorithms filter out “content that challenges us”, being “more willing to listen to the other side” could help us to “course-correct”.

South East Water should be taken into public ownership
Morning Star’s editorial board
Some 30,000 households in Sussex and Kent have been without water for days, “and this comes after prolonged outages last year”, says the Morning Star. A water supply is a “basic human requirement” and “without it, society starts to crumble”. Yet all South East Water can provide to “the justifiably angry of Tunbridge Wells” is “excuses”. Ministers express concern, but what we need is “the privateers kicked out and water restored to public ownership”.

The Government thinks Britain has a drink-driving problem. It doesn’t
Viggo Terling in The Critic
“Labour are adamant” that we’re suffering a “drink-driving crisis” that necessitates “stricter alcohol limits”, writes the Adam Smith Institute’s Viggo Terling. This “nanny-statism” will “land hardest on rural pubs” that are “heavily reliant on customers who drive”. But “Britain does not have a culture of reckless drink-driving”, and the government’s “campaign” relies on “anecdote and selected statistics”. It’s “time to push back” and “allow people the courtesy of a drink, and a bit of fun”.