Subscribe to The Spectator this summer and get the next 10 weeks of the magazine as well as unlimited access to our website and app for just £10.

Not only that, we'll send you a bottle of PIMS absolutely free.

Only while stocks last, so go to www.com.com.combecktator.com.com to PIMS to Spectator Out Loud. Every week, a few of our favourite writers read out their

pieces in the latest issue. This week we'll be joined by Kate Andrews, the Spectator's economics editor,

who argues that the government's social care reform plans simply don't add up.

Then Mary Wakefield will be reading her article about the importance of open church doors even

in the age of COVID. And finally, the writer Caroline Crampton reads her review of Tom Chivers' new

book, London Clay, Journeys in the Deep City. First is Kate Andrews.

As COVID-19 swept through care homes in the spring of last year, the public watched on with

horror and helplessness. About a third of all COVID deaths in England took place among

residents of these homes. It was worse overseas. In Spain, care home residents accounted for 40% of COVID

deaths last year. In the Netherlands in Sweden, it was around 50%. In Canada, almost 60%. But this doesn't

provide much comfort. Britain may belong to a large club of countries that got their pandemic policy wrong,

but the results, regardless,

were deadly. The huge holes in Britain's social care system have been exposed. They've been

expanding for decades, but comprehensive reform was avoided time and time again. In the past year,

though, what would normally be deemed politically impossible has been reconsidered. COVID made everything possible, one government insider tells me.

That includes manifesto overhauls, and the Prime Minister sees an opportunity.

Boris Johnson is convinced that he can now do what his Tory predecessors promised but fail to deliver,

comprehensively reform social care.

An announcement is expected in the coming weeks.

It will tear up the Tory manifesto pledge to protect the public from tax rises.

...