Boris’s get up and go has got up and gone!

THE QUESTION is being asked over and again, and answer comes there none. Did Boris Johnson’s crisis with Covid-19 and his flirtation with the Reaper cause a fundamental change in his character?

Prior to that he demonstrated an ebullient dynamism, decisiveness and chutzpah. People voted for him, after the dithering Theresa May, to win the December general election and get Brexit done.

Since then he has been like a leaf in the wind, unable to get a grip, give a lead, fire the incompetent, seize the chances. On every hand – Covid, the EU talks, school exams – we seem to be drifting, mired in unrepayable debts.

Teachers refuse to return to teach, the national mood is of drift and stay-at-home idleness. We see Sweden ignoring Covid and storming back to health and wealth with a Covid life-toll less than ours.

The kids have got to go back to school, the white collars to their offices, the workers to their factories. The lead should be coming from Downing Street, but it doesn’t.

Time is running out fast yet sense of urgency is there none. The next election is no longer a foregone conclusion. There is a mass to be done yet the only message is lethargy.

Is there really a sea-change in the character of our PM?