Let he who is without sin

Here’s a not much fun fact for you: in England there are currently 15,465 patients in hospital with Covid. That’s the highest figure since the second wave of the virus began in September. That sounds a lot because it is a lot. At the peak of the first wave, when we weren’t really socially distancing or wearing masks, to be precise on 12th April, there was a record 18,974 in English hospitals. 15,465 is a very big number. Here are some more scary facts.

Last week, the NHS had to divert patients to other hospitals on 44 occasions. This is the highest figure in four years. The fact is that we are running out of ICU beds and currently in Wales, there are just ten free ICU beds. This is very scary stuff. And it gets scarier.

After Boris Johnson’s recent half-arsed lockdown, the infection rate started to fall. But now the lockdowns have ended, the failed tier system is failing again as infections are once more on the rise. And just as the rates start rising, Johnson declares that it’s all hunky dory to end all restrictions in order to celebrate Christmas for five days. Mind how you go, says Johnson. Everything will be fine except the bits that won’t be.

The shops in Bristol, which is just to the south of us here in South Gloucestershire, are rammed and, from Saturday, the pubs will be too. And because Johnson has eased restrictions, things will carry on as normal through the Christmas period. People will all get together, spread the virus, kill granny and before you know it, England will be back in a full national lockdown before you can say Dominic Cummings.

And a new lockdown is coming. Today, the Northern Ireland assembly declared a six week lockdown starting from Boxing Day. Eat, drink, be merry, share the virus around and, hey presto, Johnson will be on telly again, looking for all the world like a Pound Shop Worzel Gummidge, and telling us that he’s very sorry but alas – Johnson always says alas – we’ve all got to stay at home until March. This, I can all but promise you, is certain to happen in England. The newspapers who begged Johnson to ‘save Christmas’  should, sometime next year, be in court for aiding and abetting the murder of innocent folk.

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone and, in this sense, I am not without sin. I know the rules are there, as did Dominic Cummings when he helped write them, and I interpret them in the most appropriate way I see fit, like he did. The only difference is that I am more honest about it.

I know this third wave is coming and it has all the potential to be worse than the first two put together. Even before the national free-for-all has begun numbers are going north. And given January and February are always the most difficult months for the NHS at the best of times, I worry what they will be like at the worst of times.

This feels like a slow motion car crash. Johnson and his wretched government must know, better than anyone, what’s coming down the line. I guess they must be thinking, “If we lose 66,000 people to the virus this year and Johnson is still doing well in the polls, it won’t matter too much to our chances of being re-elected in 2024 if a few more have to die along the way.” The saddest thing of all is that they could be right.