Bob’s cartoon from today’s Sunday Telegraph
Talk about a cock-up! Downing Street originally briefed that the Prime Minister would be holding a press conference on Monday to set out plans for a second national lockdown. Then someone leaked the details to the press, meaning Conservative MPs had to read about the plans in yesterday's papers rather than being told about them by Boris. In an effort to minimise the damage, Downing Street brought forward the announcement to 4.30pm yesterday. Then moved that to 6.30pm. And in the event, the Wizard of Oz didn't appear from behind his curtain until about 6.45pm, even though Downing Street had been warned by the BBC that it had to start at 6.30pm because they weren't going to move
Strictly.
As one Conservative minister told the
Times's Matt Chorley: "
The incompetence is another level. Is this a deliberate destruction of the Tory Party?
People only vote for us because they think we don't care, but are competent. Lose the competence and we're f***ed. We've lost the competence. And we are f***ed."
And let's not forget the PM scoffed at Keir Starmer's call for a two-week 'circuit breaker' three weeks ago
and described a second national lockdown as the "nuclear option". Pitch rolling, Boris-style.
The key points of yesterday's announcement were as follows (courtesy of
the Mail):
- Restrictions will start at midnight on Thursday morning and last until December 2nd.
- People can only leave their homes for specific reasons, such as to do essential shopping, for outdoor exercise, and for work if they are unable to work from home. International travel will only be allowed for business purposes and returning travellers will have to quarantine. (This is a devastating blow to the already beleaguered aviation industry.)
- Non-essential shops will be told to shut, although supermarkets do not need to stop selling non-essential goods, as happened in Wales.
- Restaurants and pubs will have to close to the public, though they can still operate a takeaway service.
- Leisure centres, gyms, sporting venues, hairdressers and beauty parlours will have to close, although professional sport, including the Premier League, will continue.
- Key businesses that cannot operate remotely - such as construction - will carry on as before with safety precautions.
- Schools, colleges and universities will remain open.
- Places of worship can stay open for private prayer.
- Funerals are limited to close family only.
- The furlough scheme will be extended during the period of the lockdown, rather than ending tomorrow as originally planned.
- Exercise is permitted with no limits on frequency, but organised sports - including outdoor activities such as golf - will not be permitted.
- When the lockdown lapses the Tiers system will be reinstated, although Boris didn't say what metric will be used to decide whether areas can have restrictions eased.
Rather implausibly, after Witless and Unbalanced had unveiled graph after graph of doom, Boris claimed to be optimistic about the medium- and long-term and tried to get the dour-faced Patrick Vallance to second that, which he reluctantly did. The reason for this optimism? Vaccines, obviously, but also a rapid testing programme that's due to be rolled out in the next few days. Boris promised whole towns - nay, whole cities - could be tested at a stroke, with the help of the British Army. The
Times has more on this plan, which is stage one of the Prime Ministered fabled "Moonshot".
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