Sunday, 13 December 2020

Coronavirus diary, Sunday 13 December

It's crisis weekend for Britain with a worsening coronavirus situation and the seemingly imminent announcement of a no deal Brexit. A war on two fronts with the prime minister said to be taking over as supremo of post Brexit planning and operations in the Brexit aftermath planning from Michael Gove. 

Considering the difficulty he has had in coping with the pandemic, is General Johnson up to the task? Many doubt it. 

New problems are cropping up already. Fears over Brexit have led to a bottleneck in imports of food and goods for Christmas, leading to miles-long lorry queues on both sides of the Channel and stockpiling of food in a new round of panic buying. It seems as if the government have already decided it is war with Europe: they aim to pass a new law to allow Navy gunboats to board and arrest foreign fishing boats invading our territorial waters 

The most belligerent tabloid papers have today singled out Angela Merkel and Germany as the enemy who scuttled our Brexit plan. 

The prospect of a happy Christmas is in doubt with warnings from health chiefs that it is a mistake which we will pay for with more deaths. The PM's decision to pave the way in England for the five-day break by moving many of the three tier areas to to two tier to give more freedom has been attacked as dangerous, leading to an immediate post holiday lockdown. He is being accused of ignoring the strong advice of his health advisers. 

The prospect of a relief from the pandemic is being dimmed by the new, unknown restrictions likely in Britain's go-it-alone future. inevitably, the PM, who persuaded Britain that he would 'get Brexit done' so we could be free again is telling us not to worry, that all will be well. Better than that, 'It will be wonderful, wonderful', he enthused - after returning unabashed from his make or break dinner with Mrs von der Leyen, the EU Commission chief.

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