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meEach cloud has a silver lining. While the increasingly protracted Brexit trade negotiations – Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen appear on a mission to demonstrate Zeno’s paradox – made the most headlines last week, the coronavirus has been relegated to the second element in the most newsletters.
Which turned out to be an unexpected bonus for Matt Hancock, as he found his workload dropped dramatically. Only one press conference in Downing Street, in which he had precisely nothing to say, and only one appearance at Commons in which he made a lap of honor after the administration of the first vaccine. Otherwise not much really. It was almost a week off.
But with the coronavirus showing no signs of going away, Hancock returned to the chamber to deliver a statement on the crisis. Having started with his usual comments about “sacrifice,” “straining every tendon,” and “national effort” that now cuts and pastes from all his previous statements, Matt got down to business. It did not facilitate listening.
First, there was a new variant of Covid that could have been responsible for the increase in transmission rates in the Southeast; I hoped, but couldn’t promise, that it was no worse than the first iteration of Covid and would respond to the vaccine.
Then we got to the heart of the matter that everyone already knew because it had been broadcast on social networks hours before.
Although the official level review date was two days from now, due to the increased transmission rate, the government had had to act more quickly by placing London and parts of Essex and southern Hertfordshire at level 3 from now on. midnight on Wednesday morning.
You could almost feel the panic in Door Matt’s voice, as another government measure to control the virus had proven only partially effective. Although strangely, some conservatives seemed to think that the new data meant that their own districts should have been placed at level 1 from the beginning.
Jon Ashworth of Labor, the shadow health secretary, responded more sadly than angry. As if he’s just grateful he’s not the minister caught in the middle of hard-line cabinet colleagues hell-bent on keeping most of the economy open regardless of what the scientists are advising.
Ashworth began by saying that it had been only a matter of time before London and parts of the South East moved to Level 3, as that is where they should have been since the start of the new system of government.
He also noted that level 3 did not appear to be doing much to control the spread of the virus in Kent, which was already at level 3. It left the question of whether the government had a plan if level 3 proved ineffective on a larger scale.
Therefore, Hancock did not feel compelled to say whether there would be a new Tier 4 tier, whether it would reconsider the tier system a third time, or impose another national lockdown. For which he appreciated the little mercies, since the three options must be in his mind.
Though he stopped short of calling for the removal of the five free Christmas days for all, Ashworth politely wondered if it was a good idea to effectively suspend all three levels for Christmas. How is allowing any number of people, who may or may not have the virus, to travel across the country to spend time with elderly relatives at lower levels, be, in any sense of the word, safe?
Lib Dem Munira Wilson and conservative Tobias Ellwood were far more forthright. Clearly, it was insane to risk the health of so many people, so soon after the government imposed restrictions to mitigate both the burden on the NHS and the number of deaths. Here Door Matt sounded genuinely conflicted – his voice became more brittle and he hit the shipping box in frustration. You have the feeling that if it were up to him he would cancel Christmas here and now.
But because Boris had promised the country the deal to allow everyone the chance to kill his family members, the prime minister was determined not to disappoint anyone. Typical. You wait years for Johnson to keep a promise and he ends up fulfilling the one you wish he didn’t make.
So all Matt could do was offer a few topics. Just because people were able to see their families, he said, did not mean they were actually obligated to do so. Most people’s Christmases ended with something of a fight, so why not cut losses before the game and stay home after all? Or just travel 200 miles to see your grandparents and then just talk to them through the window for a few minutes. Somehow, I’m not sure one is going to figure it out.
At the Downing Street press conference an hour later, some of the negativity seemed to have rubbed off on Hancock. The past few months have left him scarred and there is little sign of the enthusiastic old Tigger. Unsurprisingly, most of the questions were about the wisdom of the five-day Christmas amnesty and, with Chris Whitty sounding less than thrilled with the prospect, the most he was willing to say was that it was a time of year when the one that people like to see their relatives, but they should do it responsibly, that is, not at all. Matt became noticeably more evasive about when or if there should be more restrictions.
“People need to be cautious,” Matt said cautiously, before insisting that he wouldn’t be afraid to take more action if necessary. Although he hedged his bets on whether that action would come before or after Christmas if infection levels continued to rise. Especially since that was a decision well above his salary level.
