3 Weeks to Grab Power

March 2020 to March 2021 is thirteen months; thus February 2021 marks one year – almost – since the UK was placed into lockdown after being told it was merely “three weeks to flatten the curve”

Above - Britain's empty streets Kevan James

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has claimed that the Covid-19 lockdown in the UK began on 16 March 2020, when he told the House of Commons that “unnecessary social contact” should be avoided. Also on 16 March, the Prime Minister Boris Johnson made a televised statement saying “now is the time for everyone to stop non-essential contact”, referring to it both as “advice” and a “very draconian measure”.

It was not until 23 March 2020 that Mr Johnson told people they “must” stay at home and said that “we will immediately” close some businesses. This has been referred to as the start of lockdown by government ministers, including by Mr Hancock and Mr Johnson. Legally, the main restrictions in England actually began at 1pm on 26 March, when The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020 came into force. One can justifiably argue therefore that the removal of basic freedoms within the UK has been going on for a year. Not quite the same things as three weeks, is it?

We will refer to the UK as a whole, rather than the four nations individually as the Covid-19 pandemic is a classic case of how one set of policies – those of the UK Government - should have been the case throughout. The case for devolved governments has been, in our view, irretrievably weakened by the performance of all four administrations, with, again in our view, the naked political posturing and blatant power-grabs by Nicola Sturgeon, and a perfect demonstration of what will happen under a Labour government as shown by Mark Drakeford.

We will analyse the Prime Minister’s ‘roadmap’ over the course of this week but the economic, physical and mental health of the United Kingdom and its people, is too important to be subject to the whims, desires and political objectives of inadequate, life-inexperienced politicians who have no idea of what they are doing and what the consequences as a result of their actions for real, ordinary people will be.

Image © Kevan James