Give the public an inch and they’ll take a mile – or 260 | Verity Lush

What a week it’s been.
Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson participates in a national clap for carers to show thanks for the work of Britain's NHS (National Health Service) workers and other frontline medical staff around the country as they battle with the novel coronavirus pandemic, outside 10 Downing Street (Photo by Tolga AKMEN / AFP) (Photo by TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images)Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson participates in a national clap for carers to show thanks for the work of Britain's NHS (National Health Service) workers and other frontline medical staff around the country as they battle with the novel coronavirus pandemic, outside 10 Downing Street (Photo by Tolga AKMEN / AFP) (Photo by TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images)
Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson participates in a national clap for carers to show thanks for the work of Britain's NHS (National Health Service) workers and other frontline medical staff around the country as they battle with the novel coronavirus pandemic, outside 10 Downing Street (Photo by Tolga AKMEN / AFP) (Photo by TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images)

The Cummings and goings of the government and the demise of Specsavers, now that all one need do to tentatively test one’s vision is pile into a car (preferably with your small child), and go for a 60-mile round trip. On what happens to be your wife’s birthday. Pure coincidence, that last bit.

This brave new world in which the need to apologise for causing upset, is no longer needed.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Flouting of rules is A-okay. Using a loophole that you inserted in those rules in order to protect women and children at risk of abuse is thoroughly above board.

Whatever your views on that weasel, Cummings, it’s clear that certain lockdown rules were put in place because the government does not trust the public.

They know that you give an inch and people take a mile, or 260.

Have you heard of cognitive dissonance? If not by name, then you’ll certainly be familiar with the concept of it by now. When religious cults predict the end of the world and it doesn’t happen, they don’t lose belief – they become more fervent.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Just like Tory voters are doing now for the imbecilic man-child that is ‘leading’ us. ‘Nobody else could do a better job.’ Yes, they could. Boris knew what was coming and Cheltenham went ahead.

Nothing more need be said – and I don’t have the word count.

‘Labour couldn’t do any better’ doesn’t mean that Boris hasn’t failed spectacularly.

On Sunday evening, Johnson came out and tried to deflect from Cummings by announcing schools will open on June 1. Or did he try to deflect from schools opening (in the direct face of the Independent SAGE science report from Friday) knowing that Cummings would be the focus anyway?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Soon enough, I am sure pictures of his latest child will be released to distract us again – perhaps with Boris breastfeeding him to show what a hands-on dad he is.

If only he’d been more of a hands-on PM when he refused, back in February, to read notes from Cobra meetings about Covid-19 because they were ‘too long’.

I’m in no desperate hurry to get back to the shops, thanks

I am interested to see the reaction of shoppers when the non-essential stores reopen on June 15.

Will they flock in droves or will it be the whippersnappers alone who brave the queues?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

This must be the date that the government had in mind from the start (it is the day that the famed 12 weeks are up), and it is incredible that we have been in a degree of lockdown ever since.

I won’t be among those racing to Primark. I’m happy to remain an online shopper until things have settled down markedly from now.

A report from an Oxford University epidemiologist this week makes convincing reading regarding our R rating and, unlike Boris, I err on the side of caution.

Teachers will unfairly get the blame whatever the outcome

If we find ourselves in the happy circumstance where schools reopening does not lead to a summer holiday second wave, you can guarantee teachers will still be blamed.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

They’ll be painted to have been not only lazy cretins, but also as a group of lazy cretins who have been proven utterly wrong. But that won’t be the case. If we manage to avoid a mass school outbreak, it will be because headteachers and school teams the land over are working 16-hour days to try and plan where the government has FAILED to do so. And Jenny Harries, please stick to science. I’ve known four-year-olds share the contents of their nostrils with their peers, let alone their Lunchables.