BORIS Johnson’s leadership - or lack of it - during the pandemic and the public’s perception of lockdown II were debated by columnists in the newspapers yesterday.
The Daily Mail
Janet Street-Porter said a second health catastrophe was looming as cancer treatments are put on hold and said there was no end in sight.
She was in no doubt as to why. “I’m afraid the blame for all this has to be placed at one man’s door.” she said. “Boris has one major flaw - he wants to be to be loved. He’s a headline-grabbing crowd pleaser. Bike lanes, garden bridges, stuff like that always looked and sounded exciting when he was Mayor of London.
“But being Prime Minister in a pandemic is a much tougher call requiring consistency, calmness and a masterplan all of which is totally beyond him.”
She would rather see Tony Blair, David Cameron or even Theresa May in charge, she said.
“His dithering at the start of the year when the virus was spreading in China and just arriving in Europe proved catastrophic,” she said. “A two week delay in imposing lockdown resulted in the worse death rate in Europe after an idiotic Government directive that care homes should accept infected patients from hospitals.
“As ten of thousands of our elderly folk were decimated (denied visits from their closest family as they wheezed their last breaths) it became apparent that Boris had seriously misjudged where the pandemic would wreak the most harm.”
He has been playing catch up ever since, she said.
“Now, as winter draws on WE will decide when it’s time to go into hibernation. Not the Wizard of Oz who currently resides in Downing Street or his advisors and their dodgy infection charts designed to scare us into submission.”
The Daily Express
Leo McKinstry said the new measures announced by the Prime Minister on Tuesday were depressing but realistic.
“Given the scientific predictions about the potential spread of Covid, it would have been impossible for his Government to do nothing,” she said. “If the virus is allowed to spiral out of control, the very fabric of our society will be ripped apart.
“One opinion poll yesterday showed 77 percent approved of the Government strategy, while just 13 percent were opposed.”
He the figures demonstrated the ‘habitual British willingness to accept adversity and sacrifice for the wider good.’
He said the country was in a far stronger position than back in March.
“As the Prime Minister pointed out in the Commons on Tuesday, a feasible estimate of infections doubling every 20 days would produce 8,400 new daily cases by mid-October, far below the grim warning of 50,000 new cases set out by Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer on Monday,” he argued.
“So there are grounds for hope that the tide may be turning by next spring.
“But the new measures have to be given a chance.
“The Government should ignore the eager voices calling for even heavier restraints on the public. A second lockdown would be disaster, a supposed cure worse than the disease.”
The Independent
James Moore said that despite Tory MPs being mutinous about the new restrictions, theirs was a minority view, at least as far as polls indicated.
“YouGov has sought to gauge the public’s reaction every time the government has announced restrictions designed to combat the pandemic,” he said. “The results have been remarkably consistent. Polls have registered solid support for the actions taken at every stage.”
He said they were talking about a 70 per cent backing.
“ To get a result like that your measures need to find favour with people from different age groups, social backgrounds,political outlooks,” he added. “YouGov characterises the 78 per cent saying they supported the new lockdown measures as “overwhelming” support. Of them, 44 per cent expressed “strong” backing, with 34 per cent “somewhat” supportive.”
He said putting the economy above people’s lives was highly problematic from a moral standpoint.
“The public appear to recognise that the inconveniences we are asked to accept are relatively minor when set against the loss of a loved one,” he said. “That speaks rather well of this otherwise fractious and divided nation.”
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