A leaf on a windy day

The most ridiculous thing I have heard for a very long time is the decision of the government to announce an inquiry to establish how Dominic Cummings’ plan to lockdown the country again was leaked to the media. The absolute brass neck of it all. Cummings and Boris Johnson don’t govern the country: they rule by way of an ongoing campaign and one way in which they campaign is by leaking information to favoured journalists. How else does virtually everything Cummings comes up with end up on the front pages of carefully selected newspapers? If the impending lockdown was leaked without Cummings’ authority, it must be the first time.

Yes, we are being taken for fools. The leak, in the middle of a Friday evening, follows a familiar pattern. The government has a major announcement to make, in this case one which will have a drastic effect on the country, and information somehow finds its way into the public arena. More and more information becomes available as time goes by until Boris Johnson stands behind a lectern, flanked usually by people who know what they are talking about (or Dido Harding), and tells us stuff we already know. It is oh so predictable.

The red top newspapers are obsessed with the notion that we must take action to ‘save Christmas’. As an atheist who nonetheless loves Christmas – let’s be honest: the alleged Jesus Christ plays a minor role in his own birthday celebrations these days – saving it is not high in my list of priorities. Of course, I want to spend the festive period with my family and friends but I would also like them, and indeed me, to still be alive. I do not want a lockdown just so’s we can enjoy the new John Lewis advert.

Scientists have been telling Cummings and Johnson for many weeks that we need to lock down. They call it a circuit-breaker during which the transmission of the virus can be slowed and to sort out the disastrous privatised track and trace system, which has so far cost taxpayers a smidgeon over £12 billion. If we lock down just so we can spend the afternoon with granny watching the Queen’s speech, I am not sure whether it will be worth the effort.

Who really thought things could get this bad again? I mean, it was barely two months ago that chancer – sorry, chancellor – Rishi Sunak was bribing us with our own money to Eat Out To Help Out because it was safe. Johnson told us to all go back to our workplaces and to bring back ‘bustle’ to the high street. Schools and universities were reopened because there was no possibility of spreading the virus. Johnson had wrestled COVID-19 to the floor and life could get back to normal. Until it got back to near normal and the virus came rushing back. Who wasn’t surprised by that? Absolutely no one, that’s who.

Now this absolute shit show of a government is going to lock us all down, far harder and probably for much longer than it would have been had they locked down when scientists suggested they should. Johnson, who knows nothing about anything, decided to ignore the experts and Dominic Cummings has always supported the myth of the herd mentality anyway.

This time, people are angry. Angry at the government’s sheer incompetence, angry at the way the likes of Cummings, Honest Bob Jenrick and co bring it rules for the lumpen proletariat which don’t apply to them and angry at the coming economic meltdown and mass unemployment it is sure to bring. Add to the mix, an epidemic of poor mental health and a section of the population that has been convinced, without evidence, that the whole thing is a deep-state plot and COVID-19 doesn’t exist. On top of everything is complete exhaustion. I am absolutely worn out and worn down by it all. My guess is that to some degree, you are too.

Johnson talks about his plans for this and that but there are no real plans. He and Cummings just react to stuff, usually far too late. Sunak, all spin and no substance, delivers a new budget every other week. I am reminded of Brian Wilson’s greatest song (in my opinion) Til I Die where he asks: “I’m a leaf on a windy day, pretty soon I’ll be blown away. How long will the wind blow?” Wilson’s plaintive answer is “until I die”. I feel just like that leaf today.

There will be more leaks in the coming days, all I suspect completely intentional. By the time Johnson stands before us on Monday, we will know exactly what’s coming. Lockdown from Wednesday, probably for four weeks and hope for the best.

And the nightmare that has been 2020 will run and run well into 2021, at least.