Put Country Before Party To Overcome This National Crisis

The Government’s decision to impose a second national lockdown could hardly be more depressing. Any hopes of an imminent return to normality have been dashed. A long, hard winter now beckons.

- Leo McKinstry

This drastic step is also humiliating for the Prime Minister. Only 10 days ago in the Commons, he dismissed Labour’s demand for a national “circuit breaker” and declared that “our approach will keep our country and our regions moving”.

Now he has been forced to execute a screeching U-turn.

Boris Johnson’s defenders maintain that he was driven, not by panic, but by the determination to save lives. They argue that he had no alternative, given the grim warnings from his scientific advisers.

One of the most alarming scenarios said there could soon be 4,000 Covid deaths a day in Britain if no further action is taken.

The same experts also claimed the second wave could be four times as high as the first, that the NHS may well be overwhelmed as daily hospital admissions for coronavirus pass 8,000, and that the rate of infections could reach 100,000 a day.

AT ONE Downing Street briefing there was even an assertion that ice rinks might have to be used as temporary mortuaries. “I could have wept. It was so awful,” said a Government aide who was present at this doom-laden meeting.