The best he can do

Tonight, I’ve heard some horror stories from all over Bristol about what’s been happening during the so-called lockdown. From Southmead, to Kingswood and to Bradley Stoke, it is become crystal clear that significant numbers of people have lost patience, don’t care, don’t believe what’s going on or think Covid-19 won’t happen to them. Grim tales of street parties on Friday, with social distancing all but abandoned and well-attended barbecues throughout the rest of the weekend. What we really needed was leadership from a strong, coherent and competent prime minister. Instead, we got Boris Johnson.

HIs pre-recorded speech to the nation was pitiful. It told us almost nothing beyond we can now drive as far as we like and take unlimited exercise, which many people are doing already. All that has really changed is the slogan. Instead of the red and amber traffic light coloured ‘Stay home. Protect the NHS. Save Lives’ we now have the amber and green traffic light coloured ‘Stay Alert. Control The Virus. Save Lives’. You can see what Johnson, or rather Dominic Cummings, did there. The green represents a green light. They’re trying to play with our minds.

Suddenly, at a few hours notice, if people are able to get to work, they should. Well, the ones who couldn’t work at home, already are going to work, apart from those who are being furloughed by their employer. What on earth does this mean? And that was pretty well it. A few vague suggestions about what might happen at some stage in the future, like putting people in quarantine for two weeks after they arrive in the UK, rendering all foreign travel all but impossible, but not a lot else.

Johnson’s speech was not a plan. It was certainly nothing like the ‘roadmap’ he had promised. In the end, it represented ten minutes I’ll never get back.

And in arranging this speech many days in advance and by his advisors, led by Cummings, briefing the press on Wednesday night that the lockdown would be ended on Monday, they all but encouraged people to let down their guard, which many thousands of people were more than happy to do. It is likely that the main consequence of this week’s actions will result in a spike of new infections and more deaths. As if enough people haven’t died in this country already.

Boris Johnson has been a disastrous prime minister to date. The failure to take strong and timeous action, the failure in testing, the failures in PPE and now this pitiful failure in delivering a coherent plan would have seen most politicians swept out of power. Johnson’s teflon coat remains for now but even his most fervent supporters must have their doubts now. He’s out of ideas, out of his depth and he should be out of number 10 if this is the best he can do. And sadly, for this TV chat show host and after dinner speaker, it is the best he can do.