Hospital ward: how many NHS staff would Sajid Javid have lost if he continued with his plan for mandatory vaccinations?
Boris Johnson’s Tory government is rubbish at brinkmanship, isn’t it?
It’s good at bullying: where they have all the power, Johnson’s mob run roughshod over the plebs every time.
But look at this climbdown. Only a few weeks ago, Sajid Javid was rattling the sabre hard, saying NHS staff must get the Covid-19 vaccinations or lose their jobs.
Now he’s climbing down fast because the number of staff members refusing to have the injections forced on them (which is, let’s remember, a human rights violation) would cause a staffing crisis in the NHS.
This is not about people being anti-vaxxers, mind: there may be many good reasons for staff to refuse the injection and it would be wrong to infer a reason that may trigger unfair prejudice against doctors, nurses and support staff.
Javid is saying he’s relenting because the Omicron variant, now the dominant form of Covid-19 in the UK, is both milder than Delta and receding, but we all know that’s just an excuse.
The evidence shows that the bullies had to back down because they had painted themselves into a corner.
Downing Street appears likely to drop its policy of dismissing frontline NHS and care staff in England who refuse Covid vaccinations, a minister has strongly indicated, after nursing and care organisations called for this to happen.
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Mistaken identity: Boris Johnson took to our TV screens to announce new government measures to tackle the Omicron variant of Covid-19. But we thought it was another Christmas quiz. What was the first question again?
This Writer’s booster injection, if all went as planned, was due on December 20. Am I now to expect it on Thursday, after Boris Johnson’s announcement on Sunday evening?
Johnson intruded on our Sunday viewing to announce that the UK’s Covid alert level was being raised to 4 – the second-highest – indicating a high or rising level of transmission.
And he said the government was accelerating vaccinations and booster jabs, intending to fit seven weeks’ worth of injections into three. That’s how I calculated the schedule for my own booster.
No further social distancing restrictions were announced.
To be honest, the government could have made this announcement without putting Johnson out to broadcast it in a pre-recorded statement (that he still stumbled through like a drunkard who’s lost his reading glasses).
This Writer was most struck by what wasn’t said.
This could have been a press conference, with media reporters (and, preferably, members of the public) lined up to ask questions.
But it seems Johnson wasn’t having any of that. Was he afraid we would all go off-script and start demanding answers about his own failures to follow the Covid-19 rules last Christmas?
I think he was. I think he dreaded being asked why he told us all the regulations were followed in Downing Street last December when we now have photographic evidence that he, personally, did not.
Also – and I got this from Alastair Campbell who, whatever you may think of him, should know – it seems that, having allowed the Conservative government air time to make the announcement, broadcasters like the BBC are now obliged to provide the equivalent air time to the opposition political parties. When’s that going to happen, BBC?
Finally, it occurs to me that this announcement is only necessary because of Johnson’s laissez-faire attitude to Covid-19. He should have admitted that his government had made mistakes – in timing the vaccine rollout at the very least – but he couldn’t even get that right.
Given the nature of the announcement, which was that the government and NHS are going to do more, but we don’t have to do anything we wouldn’t have done anyway, I’m drawn to only one conclusion: that Johnson had used this as an opportunity to present himself in a good light.
To that, I can only say:
Tough luck, corrupt liar! You shouldn’t have come out of hiding for any reason other than to explain yourself, or simply to resign, and you bottled it! Don’t come back until you’re ready to face the consequences of your actions.
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Covid Javid: he’s trying to force something into the bodies of frontline NHS staff. Many will see this as a form of attempted rape – which it is – and quit. And NHS staffing will worsen. Wouldn’t it be better simply to change their jobs so unvaccinated people aren’t on the front line?
We could all see this coming. For a party that insists it values choice above all things, the Tories love forcing people to accept what they don’t want.
So Sajid Javid is forcing all NHS frontline workers to have Covid-19 vaccination injections, whether they want them or not.
We have discussed this subject previously on This Site. I made it perfectly clear that I am double-jabbed – and I intend to have the booster injection when it is offered to me, even though I know it will make me feel very ill for several days.
Nevertheless, I was attacked as an anti-vaxxer by several ignorant souls after I stated that this has been my personal choice, and there is no possible argument strong enough to rob other people of their own choice.
Javid cannot force people to have the injection. That would be forcing them to have a foreign object inside their body against their will, which is analogous to rape. I do not use the comparison lightly and anybody who criticises another person for making it fails to understand the seriousness of the issue here.
The alternative to taking the injection, it seems, is expulsion from the National Health Service.
Who does that help?
It won’t help patients because there will be fewer staff available to treat them and waiting lists will become longer.
It will help those who want to privatise the NHS altogether because they’ll have a stronger (albeit as false as ever) argument that it cannot cope and private firms should be brought in to take up the slack.
Is that Javid’s ulterior motive? Probably.
A simpler solution would be to move staff who won’t accept the injection away from frontline duties. That would be the safer option for all concerned in any event and should have happened as soon as a vaccine became available. I wonder why nobody has bothered to implement it until now.
Other staff could have been trained up – or hired in (remember, the NHS currently has a shortage of many thousands of nurses and doctors).
If a solution isn’t found and people are forced to choose between the injection and the loss of their job, then that will be coercion and I would strongly encourage victims of such intimidation to take the Health Secretary to court for attempting the criminal activity named above.
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Jabber Johnson: this overgrown teenager has had the vaccine already, despite having already been infected. It has been argued that 12-15 year olds may not benefit from vaccination because of previous infection.
Chief Medical Officers in the UK have recommended that people aged between 12 and 15 should be offered the Covid-19 vaccination.
The decision by the four CMOs comes 10 days after the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said it could not recommend adding this age group to those receiving the jabs because of a side effect of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that causes heart inflammation and may lead to palpitations and chest pain.
And children were said to be at such a low risk from the virus that vaccines would offer only a marginal benefit.
But the JCVI said ministers may want to consider wider issues like how vaccination may reduce school disruption.
Crucially, though, it seems the decision will be left to the family. This will not be an attempt to force vaccination on young people.
But if a child and parent are of opposing views and the child is considered competent to decide, the child will have the final say.
That may create a difficult situation in the future.
What else will children be considered competent to decide? On what will they be denied the choice? And how will any discrepancies be justified?
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Jabber Johnson: Boris Johnson has invested everything in the efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccinations – but a quarter of new infections are in people who have had both injections.
Should working people be forced to have one of the Covid-19 vaccines, on pain of losing their jobs if they refuse?
The question was debated on Politics Live last Thursday – and gave rise to an interesting discussion on Twitter.
The headline findings are: there are no good reasons for forcing vaccination on anybody. Your body is your own and nobody should be allowed to tell you what you do with it, put in it or take out of it.
Would you order a woman to have an abortion if she didn’t want to, for no other reason than that it would make you feel better?
That’s what it comes down to, in this case as well.
Forcing somebody else to vaccinate will not make it less likely that you will catch Covid-19, because vaccination does not stop people contracting or transmitting the virus.
In fact:
If vaccination was made compulsory, you would be more likely to catch it – because people would think they were better-protected than would be the case.
And the attitude and arguments of those who supported forcing people to vaccinate is a real eye-opener. See for yourself. Here’s how I started:
Compulsory vaccinations: why are people now being FORCED to take jabs, at risk of losing their jobs? Vaccination doesn't stop virus contraction or transmission. There's an important issue of choice here. Are we in a dictatorship? #PoliticsLive
So you are demanding the curtailment of freedom of choice from these taxpayers, who fund the NHS just as you do? Who are you to force that decision on somebody else? For the record, I've had both jabs; it was my choice.
That's not what Peter is saying, though. He's saying that people who don't want the jab should be forced to have it because otherwise they may use NHS resources (that they fund).
Why would staff contract the virus in these workplaces? Could this penalise people for the failures of hygiene carried out by others who've had the jab, for example? Wouldn't it be unfair of employers to penalise employees in such a way? Remember, jabbed ppl can pass it on.
For an individual, like me the PROBABILITY or LIKELYHOOD of being seriously ill is reduced. So the risk reduced. But some twice vaccinated people will still get Covid and die. It could be me.
I am more likely to a) get it from the unvaccinated as they are more likely to get it than the vaccinated and b) more likely to get it badly from the unvaccinated ( higher viral load). Your refusal to vaccinate puts you at higher risk ( your funeral) but puts others at risk also
I was quite clear. I said more likely. Probability calculations apply across the whole population but of course the likelihood, if you get it, of getting it seriously is affected by other factors also. The main other factor is age, but Individuals can’t do anything about that.
Absurd conclusion. If an adverse event can occur as a result of several causes, and increases in probability the more causes are present, then eliminating those that can be makes sense. It’s like lung cancer, choose to smoke if you wish but don’t inflict smoke on others.
But it is a correct conclusion. David Barry had admitted that the likelihood of catching the virus does not depend on who has been vaccinated, and the seriousness of the case depends, not only on whether the transmitter was vaccinated but on the contractor’s physical constitution.
I repeat: Forcing people to vaccinate will not stop anybody else contracting the virus; it’s not what the vaccine does.
The next person eventually blocked me because I countered their arguments logically. Fortunately we can see Ace Socialist’s tweets here:
All my grandparents are long dead. Hypothetically, though, what would be the circumstances of such care? And what would be the difference to the cared-FOR, since you can contract and pass on the virus if you've had the jab or not?
And of course, whether the transmitting person had been vaccinated makes no difference to whether the effects on me are greatly reduced if I have been vaccinated. This person had provided no evidence at all to prove that other people should be forced to have the jab.
Then the conversation took a sinister turn. Consider the falseness of the following argument. I wasn’t referring only to the risk to me; people in care homes have all been vaccinated now (apart from those who have refused it for their own reasons) so the risk to them has also been reduced, by as much as is possible.
To be fair mate do you think the left is all about forced vaccinations? Because I don’t think they are
As I understand it, the decision on whether children have vaccinations is made by their parents/guardians (collectively). So Ace’s argument below is false:
But you’re not in favour of forced vaccinations? 😂
That’s right – those laws say their parents/guardians make those decisions until they are old enough to make them for themselves. They do not say that the government or any other exterior organisation can take those decisions away.
Those are the arguments I have seen and they are not persuasive.
If you have a better argument for forcing an action on another person against their wishes, I’d like to know what it is.
At the moment, it seems the only reason for it – that makes any sense – is the desire to exert power over someone else.
That road leads to Nuremberg.
ADDITIONAL: And what about “vaccine passports”? If being vaccinated doesn’t stop anybody being infected, then it can’t be used as justification for attending large events in close contact with other people; the possibility of infecting many of them remains as high as if nobody there had had the jab at all. Right?
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Mealy-mouthed: Jenrick said he was following scientific advice by denying “surge” vaccinations to Greater Manchester. But isn’t it more accurate to say he is starving a Labour-voting area of the help it needs?
Would they have said “no” if Greater Manchester had a Conservative mayor?
That is the question that should be on everybody’s lips after Tory minister (and he’s as corrupt as they come) Robert Jenrick rejected GM mayor Andy Burnham’s call for “surge” vaccinations in his metropolitan area, where there has been a significant increase in Covid-19 cases.
Jenrick said: “We are going to stick with the advice we have received from the JCVI, our advisers, which say that it is better to continue to work down the age categories on a national basis, rather than adopt a regional or geographical approach.
“Their advice has served us well so far as a country, they have got the big calls right since the start of the vaccine rollout.”
Oh really?
In that case, why are Covid-19 cases on the increase in the UK yet again, boosted by the rise of a variant that probably would not have had nearly as large an effect if vaccination doses had been delivered on the timescale advised by the manufacturers?
For example, The Writer had the first Astrazeneca jab on April 4 and – according to the government – should receive the second dose between eight and 12 weeks later. I’m now in the middle of the 10th week since that injection and haven’t heard a whisper about a second inoculation.
Burnham’s call has won approval from the public:
Andy Burnham right to be calling for surge vaccination in areas where covid infections are rising worryingly fast @BBCr4today
Andy Burnham, Major of GM, on the radio now, giving advice on vacine rollout in surge areas. Made more sense in a 10 minute interview then I've heard from Johnson's motley crew during the entire Covid period.
— wilks55#FBPE#ProEU#woke (@Malcolmjwilliam) June 9, 2021
And Jenrick’s dismissal of Burnham is being treated as political favouritism:
Robert Jenrick is asked to respond to mayor Andy Burnham’s call for surge vacinations “right now”.
“The government will not boost Greater Manchester’s vaccination supply” the communities secretary says.
I wonder if the answer would be the same if Manchester had a Tory Mayor?
— 🌹🌹Ex Labour “Tory Corruption, corrupts” (@pete3291) June 9, 2021
Others have suggested that the Tories simply don’t care about the North (ex-Red Wall Tory voters please take note).
In a rational society, when there is a pandemic infection with a vaccine available, inoculations would be concentrated in areas with increased cases of the disease.
But we don’t live in a rational society. We live in one that is run by Tories.
They do not understand or care about Covid-19 and its effects on the stock (which is what they call you).
They are simply going through the motions in order to appear to be acting competently.
And if they can use a fatal disease to reduce support for their main political rivals, then they are low enough to do that.
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I was going to avoid reporting on anti-lockdown protests, because in a time when wearing a mask and having a vaccination injection could save many thousands of lives, I would have hoped anyone with sense could see that these people are wrong.
But some of the protesters who were out in London today (and elsewhere, I dare say) took the opportunity to take their silliness across the line into the unforgivable. I refer to this:
It is bad enough that people like this … lady … have chosen to mock the memories of more than 150,000 victims of the Covid-19 virus by announcing their ignorance of its threat all over our streets.
But then they had to pretend that measures designed to safeguard their lives are somehow similar to the systematic persecution and extermination of Jews by Nazi Germany.
It isn’t very often that I agree with David Baddiel on matters concerning anti-Semitism but this was an offence, not only against the 150,000 who have died over the last year or so but also against the six million Jews who were murdered in the Nazi Holocaust.
In that context, I think his tweeted “Take. That. Off.” was remarkably restrained.
Others who took to the social media to express their outrage were more explanatory. I won’t publish the actual tweets because they feature the full image, including the woman’s face, and I don’t want to give her the publicity.
The Auschwitz Memorial Twitter account stated, “Instrumentalization of the tragedy of Jews who suffered, were humiliated, marked with a yellow star, and finally isolated in ghettos and murdered during the Holocaust, in order to argue against vaccination that saves human lives is a sad symptom of moral and intellectual decline.” This was also remarkably restrained, in my opinion.
Heather Rufus tweeted: “To anyone wearing the Star of David as a lockdown protest, you’re totally lacking in awareness. Millions of Jewish people were murdered during the Holocaust and you are likening lockdown to that. You should hang your head in shame. Gross.”
Ian Moore went further: “If you wore a Yellow Star today to protest against facemasks that protect others, you are a stain on humanity. You ignorant, privileged morons. Whatever your perceived grievances are, how is that Holocaust level? Vile.”
Benjamin Cohen, CEO of Pink News added: “If you really want to be a crank and protest about the Covid lockdowns that have saved lives, do not then appropriate a symbol from the Holocaust that led to the murder of six million Jews and permanently diminished Jewish population, destroyed Jewish culture and history.”
There’s this, from @HowardA_Esq: “Being asked to wear a mask or be vaccinated is not like having your family burned alive, gassed to death, starved to death or worked to death because of their religion. This is the symbol of our religion and our persecution. Take it off, bigot.
“My family were murdered by people who force them to wear the Star of David. Playing holocaust victim because you were asked to wear a mask, it’s reprehensible on every level.”
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After the crisis, will we put up with the cover-up? For the sake of the many thousands he sent to early graves, we have a duty to hold Boris Johnson to account for his Covid-19 cock-ups.
This Writer had the first Covid-19 vaccination on Easter Sunday and within a few hours I felt terrible.
Having been warned that a tiny minority of people experience headaches, fever and/or flu-like symptoms, I was forearmed and didn’t panice. That’s the best I can say about it.
After the headache came on I retired to bed, which I found to be extremely cold – to a point where my hands and feet felt like blocks of ice, no matter what I did to warm them up. I also experienced bizarre pains in my legs.
I did get some sleep, but awoke to the onset of the flu-like symptoms and spent the day on the sofa with the cat lying on me, downing Paracetomols and sniffing (me, not the cat).
When I told my stepdaughter about this, she said, “It’s ok, it’s just your body trying to reject the DNA changes and the nanochip. Bill Gates gets all the information fed back to him, it’ll pass and you’ll be fine in no time.” It’s good to know that someone saw the funny side.
I’m writing this just before going to bed and all those symptoms have died away.
It’s a small price to pay for the protection that the vaccine promises.
With the rollout proceeding at high speed (the vaccination centre in Builth Wells was as full as social distancing would allow when I attended), Boris Johnson and his government have announced that they are proceeding with their plans to lift lockdown restrictions, according to the timetable they set some weeks ago.
Here’s what it means, according to the BBC:
More businesses will open, but indoor settings should be visited alone, or with household groups. Outside, six people or two households can meet.
All shops allowed to open
Hairdressers, beauty salons and other close-contact services can open
Restaurants and pubs allowed to serve food and alcohol to customers sitting outdoors
Gyms and spas can reopen, as can zoos, theme parks, libraries and community centres
Members of the same household can take a holiday in England in self-contained accommodation
Weddings attended by up to 15 people can take place
Funerals be attended by up to 30 people, with 15 at wakes
Children will be able to attend any indoor children’s activity
Care home visitors will increase to two per resident
Here in Wales, matters are slightly different:
All travel restrictions have been lifted within the country – residents can travel anywhere within Welsh borders
Six people from two different households (not counting children under 11) can meet and exercise outdoors and in private gardens
Organised outdoor activities and sports for children and under-18s can resume
Limited opening of outdoor areas of some historic places and gardens
Libraries and archives can reopen
Self-contained holiday accommodation, including hotels with en-suite facilities and room service, can open to people from the same household or support bubble. But non-essential travel to and from other UK nations remains banned
And then, from 12 April at the earliest:
All pupils and students return to school, college and other education
All shops and close-contact services can open
The ban on travelling in and out of Wales ends
Driving lessons can resume and some driving tests (remainder on 22 April)
In Scotland:
Outdoor mixing between four people from up to two households is already allowed, along with outdoor non-contact sports and organised group exercise.
Communal worship is also now allowed with up to 50 attending (if social distancing permits).
The stay at home became the stay local rule on 2 April.
From 5 April, hairdressers and barbers (but not mobile services) can reopen for pre-booked appointments; more shops can reopen and non-essential click-and-collect can resume; outdoors non-contact group sports for 12 to 17-year-olds can resume.
12-19 April:
All pupils back at school full-time
And in Northern Ireland:
People can now meet for exercise in groups of up to 10 from two households
Golf and other outdoor sporting activities can resume (although clubhouses and sports facilities must stay closed)
Six people from two households can meet in a private garden
Garden centres can operate click-and-collect services
From 12 April:
Remaining school year groups 8-11 return (Years 1-3, 4-7 and 12-14 have already returned)
Stay-at-home message relaxed
All other non-essential retail can operate click-and-collect
Sports training with up to 15 people can resume
Up to 10 people from two households can meet in a private garden
It all seems very optimistic.
Personally, I’m hoping it all works out because I am sick to the back teeth of being stuck at home.
But I don’t want us to forget that we have paid a terrible, terrible price, just to get to this point.
Our government, in whom the nation placed its trust in December 2019, failed us abjectly – and the number of deaths so far is greater than many recognised genocides including:
The Romani genocide in Nazi-occupied Europe (130,000 at its lowest estimate).
The Polish genocide (around 110,000 at lowest estimate).
Idi Amin’s Ugandan genocide, the Rohingya genocide, and the genocides in Darfur, East Timor, Bosnia, Croatia, and California.
I use the lowest estimates because, of course, the number of deaths currently known in the UK is also a lowest estimate. It will be a long time before we get the final figure.
It is already horrifying enough, though:
What a searing, unforgivable milestone 😔
Today’s @ONS statistics show a staggering 150,116 people have now died of Covid.
These deaths were not inevitable. Not predestined. These people didn’t have to die.
Boris Johnson avoided dealing with Covid-19 when the pandemic first arrived in the UK. He avoided briefings and refused to take the decisions we needed, to restrict the spread of the virus.
Because he wanted it to spread through the population and kill where it could. He said as much in a TV interview in March last year.
It was his great “herd immunity” fallacy.
Ever since, he has been too keen to lift lockdown early and too reluctant to impose it again.
He has relied on a heavy propaganda campaign, intended to whitewash his decisions by claiming that the UK’s response to Covid-19 has been successful when it hasn’t.
And while he has said he is willing to have an inquiry into his government’s handling of the pandemic, he has demanded that it will only happen “at the appropriate time”, inducing some of us to believe that, for him, the appropriate time is “never”.
Alternatively, he’ll just fob us off with a government-scripted whitewash, like we’ve seen in his “racism report” last month.
He will never accept responsibility for the huge death toll he has caused.
And that means it’s up to us to pin it onto him.
But will we?
I’m concerned that the Great British Public will let him off the hook.
We have a deplorable tendency to forget about terrible injustices, pretty much the instant after we’ve had a good complain about it.
We shout at the television during the news, but how many of us actually do anything about the cause of that rage afterwards?
You know I’m right.
I can think of 150,116 people who would demand that Johnson and his government be held to account – if only they could communicate with us from beyond the grave.
They can’t so we should.
Whatever happens, it is our duty to demand justice for the multitude who died when they should not have died – because an ignorant, selfish part-time politician could not do his job properly.
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The government has said it will not prioritise teachers (or police officers) in the next phase of the Covid-19 vaccine rollout because it will involve doing some work.
The government has been under pressure to give priority in phase two to key workers, such as teachers or police officers, irrespective of their age.
But the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has stated it is better to stick to vaccination in order of age groups (oldest to youngest).
The JCVI said targeting occupational groups by going through employee lists would be more complex to deliver than simply running through a list of age groups.
It said this could slow down the vaccine programme, leaving some more vulnerable people, at higher risk unvaccinated for longer.
If schools go back, who will be more vulnerable than teachers? The really high risk groups have already had their jabs.
Bizarrely,
Professor Wei Shen Lim, the Covid chair for the JCVI, said the the goal of vaccinations was to stop people from dying.
We’ll see how that looks a few weeks after schools reopen on March 8, shall we?
It seems incredible, that pupils, parents and teachers will all be put at risk – not to mention all their families, friends and colleagues – because the people behind the vaccination programme can’t be bothered to compile the necessary lists.
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Nadhim Zahawi: waving the flag and fuddling the dates.
Should we give Nadhim Zahawi the benefit of the doubt for this faux-pas? No!
If it was an honest mistake, we should remind ourselves that Diane Abbott was given no quarter for making one, even after it was revealed that she had been trying to cope with an illness at the time.
You can still see right-wing commenters on the social media referring to it at periodic intervals, and congratulating themselves on their (small) wit for doing it.
Zahawi appears to have no such excuse for this:
In which the Vaccines Minister literally claims the schools are opening at the beginning of March because that’s three weeks after the middle of April pic.twitter.com/UCXAz5YD95
He quite clearly does assert that the Conservative government has calculated that it should be safe to open schools on March 8 because that is three weeks after mid-April, when everybody aged over 50 is expected to have been vaccinated.
Firstly, it is entirely arbitrary to use the vaccination of the over-50s as a trigger for the reopening of schools. Why not over-40s? Over-30s? Or indeed, over-20s? All are just as likely to be affected.
Secondly – and I come to this last because it’s a biggie! – March 8 is not three weeks after mid-April. That would be May 8. March 8 is around five weeks before mid-April.
So by his own calculations, the minister for Covid-19 vaccination is telling is that his government is planning to reopen schools an entire two months prematurely.
I look forward to hearing his justification for the deaths that will be triggered by this wrong-headed decision to open all schools, too early, rather than experiment with a phased reopening, increasing as evidence recommends – as the other countries of the UK are doing.
Although, no doubt, it will be equally incomprehensible.
Boris Johnson may have an opportunity to correct this cock-up when he officially announces his “roadmap out of lockdown” later today (if that is still going ahead).
That’s if our complicit Tory media remember they have a responsibility to grill him about it.
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