It may not feel like it, with the hot sun blazing high in the sky, but today, I fear, represents the beginning of the end of the summer many had hoped for. Later today, Boris Johnson will delay the easing of COVID restrictions for at least a month. This might not sound like much, since we’re currently allowed to do many things we weren’t allowed to do last year, but this is entirely the fault of Johnson and his clown car government and, quite frankly, it is about time the ‘We love Boris’ brigade awoke from their childlike slumber.
The reason we are in trouble is simple: Johnson did not put India on the ‘red list’ when scientists were repeatedly warning about the far more transmissible COVID variant, allowing many thousands of infected people to come to our shores. Result? We now have one of the fastest growing levels of infection in Europe and we are, it appears, into the third wave. How could this happen?
The simple truth is Johnson’s incompetence and disregard for our health. The worsening economic shambles as a result of Brexit saw Johnson desperate to negotiate a trade deal with India. He was due to visit the country and return home with a ‘fantastic deal’ until the sheer number of infections generated by his open-door borders policy threatened to overwhelm us. He then cancelled his trip and, far too late, brought in some restrictions to travel from India.
I would suggest that the only rules people are obeying are those which they can’t do anything about. The only reason people are not buying beer from the bar is because they’re not allowed to. The only reason people are not attending football matches in large numbers is because they are not allowed to. The only reason they are not going to nightclubs is because they aren’t open. And so on and so on. In every other aspect, people are doing what they want apart from where they are physically barred from so doing. But let’s not pretend Johnson’s failures end with a few things not reopening just yet.
If you are thinking of going abroad on holiday this year, then maybe you should think again. Already the Dutch government has declared the UK to be ‘a very high risk area for coronavirus, which means no travel unless absolutely essential.’
This means that anyone arriving in the Netherlands must quarantine and take expensive PCR COVID tests. Since the Netherlands is already on our ‘amber’ list of countries, hardly anyone will be going to the Netherlands, but so is pretty well everywhere else in Europe and beyond. How long before the rest of Europe looks at our worsening situation and thinks, ‘Do we really want to bring the Indian variant over here?’
I speak as someone who feels that while we may need to wear masks for a while longer in certain situations if we do not reopen fully on 21st June, then when?
Make no mistake: the delay, caused by the widespread importation of the Indian variant happened on Johnson’s watch, with him asleep at the wheel. If your business suffers more damage, you lose your job, your holiday gets cancelled and, most importantly, more people get sick and die, there is one man in particular who is responsible: a TV show host and after dinner speaker who blagged his way to high office by pretending to be a clown.
150,000 deaths, thousands suffering from long COVID, bankrupt businesses, countless jobs lost and Johnson is still the most popular politician in the land. Beyond the deliberately ruffled hair, the ill-fitting suit, the scripted one-liners and the bumbling fool act lies nothing. He may be the comedian, but the joke is on us. And just remember when he announces an extension to restrictions tonight, it’s his fault.
