Pupils pay price of Boris’s blunder

I HAVE debated against Ms Mary Bousted, leader of the National Education Union, and was not impressed. I do not think much of her union. But its opposition to reopening the schools is entirely the Government’s fault.

The unions need only say: ‘You told us it was too dangerous to keep the schools open. Now you tell us it is safe. Yet the virus you told us would kill us all is still among us. Why should we believe you?’ This is why it is so important that the Government is made to admit it was wrong in the first place. The danger was never that great.

Boris Johnson brewed up the great cloud of fear in this country, hugely exaggerating the danger of Covid-19. He then distilled that fear into great power.

Not since the Middle Ages has there been a government in London that interferes so markedly in our private lives and decisions, imposes curfews on us, prevents us from working or trading, that bans us from holding public meetings, restricts our travel and has shut down religious worship to an extent even Stalin never achieved.

They seem to be enjoying it. Well, I am not. They need to climb down, fast. It is bad for them. It is terrible for us.