‘EXCLUSIVE: GOOD BOOZE!’ screams the Sun today. ‘APRIL THE THIRST!” It continues: ‘Pubs will reopen in 2 months’. ‘Outdoor booze and food too.” This, we are told, comes from a ‘government source’ so it’s kosher. It’s government Boris Johnson style.
It’s not just Rupert Murdoch’s sagging organ that is running with this story. Every major newspaper, except the Guardian, which is only read by two sociology students and me, leads with a variation of the story. And it’s not a rogue story, leaked by a disaffected civil servant or out of favour SPAD, is it? I am not a betting man but if I was, I’d bet the house on the ‘government source’ briefing the news on behalf of Johnson and his government. This is the price newspapers are only too glad to pay for ‘exclusive’ stories.
I’m not sure Johnson will quite see it like this, but I can see a golden opportunity in the near future for him to repeat the same mistakes of last summer and open up everything far too quickly. That’s what happened when Rishi Sunak bribed us with our money in his ‘Eat Out to Spread Covid’ initiative, which succeeded wildly in draining the exchequer of getting on for a billion quid and laying the foundations for further lockdowns that continue to this day.
Don’t get me wrong: I will force myself to visit a pub whenever they are reopened because lockdown is literally driving me mad. I would walk on hot coals to go pretty well anywhere at the moment. But there doesn’t appear to be much science in all this and no one seems to be asking questions.
15 million people have been offered vaccinations so far, which is an incredible achievement, yet that means over 53 million haven’t been. I am no mathematical genius but I don’t need to be to see a flaw in opening everything up in less than a couple of months.
The word doing all the heavy lifting about the vaccination statistics is ‘offered’. Not all those who have been offered vaccinations have accepted them. It’s not one group of people: it’s a lot of different groups. There’s those who are frightened of taking the vaccine, those who have can’t have injections due to medical reasons and anti-vaxxers, COVID deniers and the other 57 varieties of loons, who think they know more about viruses than actual experts. If you think the likes of Piers Corbyn and David Icke are harmless cranks, then think again. By sowing the seeds of doubt about vaccines they will delay our return to any form of normality because the virus will continue to spread in larger numbers than it should.
And there are unknowns. We don’t know if those who have had the vaccine can still spread Covid. We don’t know how long the effects the vaccine will last. All we do know, for sure, is that if there are still large numbers of infections, many millions of people will remain at risk.
I’m glad it’s not me making the decisions on when and how we reopen society but by the same token I’m sad that Boris Johnson is. Never have we had a prime minister less suited to leading a country through its worst health crisis in generations. His record of 1116,287 deaths since the virus has arrived is the only world-beating aspect of his handling of the pandemic.
We have to open up sometime, I suppose, and I have literally no idea when that time might be. Moreover, neither do the experts, like the scientists and medics, or the politicians, who are not expert in anything.
My feeling is that much of, perhaps most of, the population is cautious about opening up too soon, but we have to remember the type of government we – ‘we’, the royal we – elected in 2019: a nasty, neoliberal, so-called libertarian bunch of liars, chancers and opportunists, led by the biggest liar, chancer and opportunist of the lot. I have no faith in Johnson’s government or in the man himself. All Johnson wants is to be loved and if he thinks he can be loved by opening things up too quickly, that’s what he will do.
Look out, here comes tomorrow and, sadly, tomorrow will soon look like today and yesterday, will more infections, more hospitalisations, more lockdowns and, worst of all, more deaths. Brits have done incredibly well in following the rules for the best part of the year but I fear there may come a time when patience will run out and tempers will fray. Perhaps one day we will be safe and free again. When Johnson unveils his ‘road map’ next week, I suspect we will be none the wiser.
