Freedom can wait

Thank goodness we  have only a few more days to be told if ‘freedom’ will arrive this month as planned by the prime minister.

Every day for weeks the media has been speculating, quoting the views of the optimists and the pessimists, the government and assorted advisers, so many differing views.

Some newspapers have been urging Mr Johnson to be bold. He would be wise not to heed them.

He knows that if he makes a decision that proves wrong, with serious or even disastrous consequences, they may not be forgiving,  

He cannot be sure. I would play for safety. After all, would deferring the free-for-all for a couple of weeks after so many long months be a disaster.?

Surely not. We can be patient a little longer.

Looking back rather than ahead, those early days are coming back to haunt the health secretary for England.

Facing a probing government committee, Matt Hancock tried to defend his action or, rather, lack of action, in the early days.

He had promised to put a ring around care homes yet 20,000 residents died, many of them through the unforgivable offloading of hospital patients. 

He was as usual both glib and cautious, measuring his words carefully as though stepping through a minefield. 

He knows that the final reckoning may be years away and by then he will be out of the firing line, perhaps even forgotten.