Hotel Fawlts lie with Johnson the liability

THE hotel quarantine system for arrivals from overseas could be being run by Basil Fawlty.

And it is fanning fears that this incompetent Conservative Government will again botch easing lockdown after the inspiring triumph of the NHS vaccination programme.

Isolation in specified centres in England and Wales from today will be limited to people travelling from “red list” countries – while Scotland is imposing a blanket restriction.

But that is only part of the weakness in the national defences.

Immigration officers, airports and even some of the hotels involved have all warned the system is flawed.

Ludicrous threats of 10 years in prison were deliberately intended to divert attention from the fatal mistakes of inept ministers.

Boris Johnson has got it wrong so often on lives and livelihoods – the highest death toll in Europe and the worst economic hit in any major nation are his disastrous doublewhammy. So he has either lost the plot completely or is a bare-faced liar boasting he is very proud of his record.

Taking credit for the jab success of the NHS is working politically for a PM nudging himself and his party ahead of Keir Starmer’s Labour in the polls.

But how long that undeserved boost works for Johnson depends on a wider economic recovery.

And his appalling track record is why people are worried he’ll soon smash what the NHS mended. He has both dawdled and been too hasty in the past 12 months – slow to limit the virus spread, then quick to let it rip once more. These were grievous misjudgments from a charlatan who failed to be guided by scientists. Johnson’s holding back of official evidence is just one reason not to trust a PM who is a stranger to the truth.

No option is risk-free and a dirty secret of governance is that people are allowed to die because ministers won’t pay to save them.

Schools returning, pubs reopening, watching football in stadiums and going on holidays all carry costs.

I for one want them all to resume as soon as possible.

But we need to see the real-time advice to evaluate what policy wonks call the cost-benefit analysis. Flibbertigibbet Johnson remains our gravest liability in this pandemic.