Prolonging lockdown could mean it’s curtains for Boris

PREDICTIONS of 1,500 Covid deaths a day by early December were wrong when they were flashed onto the nation’s TV screens on the night of Saturday, October 31.

Even more alarmist figures, apparently suggesting a horrifying 4,000 Covid deaths a day by the end of December, also turned out to be based on outdated models.

Former Prime Minister Theresa May seems to have had right on her side when she asked in the Commons if figures were being chosen to support the policy, rather than the policy being based on the figures.

There is certainly a strange air of manufactured panic and rush to judgment in Downing Street.

The process leading to the lockdown in England was dubious and furtive.

That is partly why people entered it in a spirit of resignation and doubt.

Most will observe it, but many will do so unwillingly and with a feeling that they have reached the end of their endurance. Does this crude bludgeon of a policy even work? If it does, why are we doing it again? What’s the ultimate aim?

One thing is beyond doubt. If it is extended one second beyond its planned four weeks, there will be major discontent not only among the public but in the Tory Party and in Parliament, too.

Attempts to sustain a lockdown in disguise, by imposing the tightest possible restrictions under the tier system in every locality, will not get the Government off the hook.

If the Government repeats this mess, they do not deserve to survive. If Boris Johnson does not lift the lockdown on December 2, his future – and that of the Tory Party itself – will be in doubt.