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The key ingredients in Boris Johnson’s electoral elixir are humor, happiness and hope. You prefer to be positive and optimistic.
However, in this crisis, that political potion has apparently stopped working.
Today in the Commons there were no carrots, only (scientific) sticks, as the prime minister tried to persuade MPs with sobering statistics and depressing data.
He spoke of the “medical and moral disaster we face” and stated that “there is no alternative.”
He apologized for the “distress” that another lockdown would cause companies, announced an increase in support for the self-employed and said “rapid response tests” would help combat the coronavirus.
For the eagle-eared ones, there was also a change in aspirations.
The prime minister suggested that we “beat” the virus “in Spring.” By contrast, in July he suggested a “significant return to normalcy” starting in November at the earliest and “possibly in time for Christmas.”
Unlike some rebel Conservative MPs, Keir Starmer told the Commons that his MPs would vote for a second blockade in England.
But the Labor leader argued that “for forty days the prime minister ignored” the advice for stricter restrictions and claimed there would be a “human cost” to such “inaction.”
Starmer also returned to his main criticisms of the government: the track and trace system and the levels of financial support.
The Prime Minister survived today’s Commons statement and is expected to comfortably win Wednesday’s vote on the restrictions.
However, his handling of this latest episode has infuriated conservative advocates, with even the most loyal ones saying they are “shocked” and “concerned.”
And with scientists’ projections looking incessantly bleak, that political potion is likely to remain ineffective for many months to come.
