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meIt was a great moment. For months now, Boris Johnson’s only answer to Keir Starmer to the prime minister’s question has been that he had no policy of his own. Rather forgetting that it was the government’s job to propose the ideas and for the opposition to oppose it. But in his first televised press conference since he was elected Labor leader, Starmer decided to put clear blue water between himself and Johnson by calling for a two to three week “circuit breaker” to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
This was not Starmer in his natural habitat. He has yet to master the art of looking relaxed in front of television cameras, but his 10-minute speech was delivered with the conviction of someone who knows he has the Sage scientists and most of the public on his side. It might have seemed a bit awkward, but it was the closest thing to true leadership the country has seen in months. Alongside Keir, Boris looks more and more like a scared and desperate wrecking ball.
Starmer started where he had left off in his response to Johnson’s statement in the Commons the day before with a summary of the latest coronavirus statistics. Then he took out the scalpel. The government had no plans, it had lost control and no longer even listened to scientific advice. Not long ago, Boris used to say that he followed science. Now he has demoted Sage to mere guidance. AKA something to be ignored at will.
With the test and trace system having only a marginal impact and the infection rate increasing in 19 of the 20 regions where local lockdowns have been imposed, now is not the time to take half measures. Boris’s three-tier system was the levels of a clown: as doomed as his previous commitments to reducing the infection rate.
Now was the time for the two- to three-week national lockdown that government scientists had called for in September. Only schools (circuit break could be scheduled to coincide with midterm) and essential work and travel would remain open. Everything else would be closed, even parliament would go into remote work, and companies affected by the closures would receive financial compensation.
Keir ended with a personal message for Boris. The Labor leader may not trust the prime minister, but it is never a bad thing to appear to be the last person in the country to believe that Johnson has a conscience worth appealing to. That sound you just heard is Boris vomiting in a corner. He has always had trouble swallowing his pride.
Come on, he said. You know the scientific evidence is on my side. You know that you cannot keep trying to keep all conservative MPs with competing interests with a series of half measures that nobody likes and does nothing. Even if I added a level 4, where only people who urgently need eye tests were allowed out as long as they were in possession of a burger and fries, it would still be a disaster. We all know the circuit breaker is going down the line at some point, so you better do it now before the death toll spikes much higher.
Starmer quickly went on to answer some questions from the media. Yes, I wanted mayors and council leaders to be involved, especially in running a more specific and localized test and trace system, but the circuit breaker had to be the priority. It was the only way to save lives, protect the NHS from overload and give the country a chance to rest. Chris Whitty had even said the same when he was with the prime minister at the Downing Street press conference the night before. How much more evidence did someone need?
And yes, it would cost money, but not as much as the government’s attrition failure rate that would end up in a circuit breaker anyway. Starmer didn’t have exact figures in mind, but to be fair, the government also has no idea how much its own measures would cost. And yes, I would not vote against the three-tier system of government because doing something has to be better than doing nothing. But not by much. Boris was simply hell-bent on killing us with acts of useless kindness.
It hadn’t been a perfect appearance. At times Starmer had been nervous about putting his head on the parapet for the first time and seemed relieved to be unharmed. But it had been more than enough. Especially since he had come first with a policy that the government will surely have to adopt sometime soon, because not even half of his own MPs believe in Boris these days. So neither does Boris, so they’re in good company. Keir couldn’t be sure that a circuit breaker was enough either. But that was a problem that could wait another day. If things got that bad, we’d all be screwed. Again, we probably were anyway. But at least we had caught a glimpse of a man who sounded like he had the authority of a prime minister. And that was as good a place as any to start.
