Lockdown farrago

YeSTeRDAY, at precisely 10.43am, the Partygate inquiry that has seemingly convulsed the nation was finally over.

After a police investigation lasting four months, involving 12 detectives and costing an eye-watering £460,000, the probe finished with 126 fines issued – including one for Boris Johnson.

The Prime Minister was handed a £50 penalty after No 10 colleagues surprised him with a birthday cake between work meetings in the Cabinet room.

No drink was taken and the cake never left its Tupperware box – but not only was Mr Johnson penalised for breaching lockdown rules, so was his Chancellor.

Rishi Sunak’s crime was to have arrived early for his meeting and joined in an impromptu chorus of Happy Birthday.

Meanwhile, how hollow and hubristic Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer looks today. With Durham police investigating his own beer and curry Covid breach, his moral high horse has reared up and thrown him off. He remains mired in his own police probe with the threat of self-enforced resignation hanging over him.

Let’s be clear, the Mail doesn’t believe either man should have to quit over the Covid breaches themselves.

However, Sir Keir has made such a mountain out of this molehill that he has been the architect of his own misfortune.

How did it ever come to any of this? europe is in a state of war, inflation is raging, the cost of living crunch growing and Northern Ireland is in crisis.

During the pandemic, our leaders imposed unprecedented constraints on cherished liberties. When visiting dying relatives or drinking a cup of coffee on a park bench becomes a criminal offence, something has gone terribly wrong.

Such a sweeping affront to freedom can never be allowed to happen again.