Andy Richardson: Right thing? Right time? Not yet
There may come a time when the Government does the right thing at the right time.
That time, however, has not arrived. Priti Patel has a mutiny on her hands. Officials have admitted they’ll be unable to implement her plans for a 14-day quarantine, which come after 20 million un-quarantined travellers had already arrived.
It’s not surprising Priti’s team aren’t supportive. After all, the Home Secretary is already facing legal action under whistleblowing laws from her former permanent secretary Sir Philip Rutnam.
Priti is famously sharp on the detail for her portfolio.
Earlier in this pandemic, she told us “three hundred thousand and thirty four, nine hundred and seventy four thousand” tests had been carried out across the UK.
Regular reader Mrs Jurance, of Wolverhampton, enjoys this column’s balance but has objected to our pet name for the Prime Minister, BoJo, saying it makes his appear as a jolly CBeebies character. We apologise.
If we’d been comparing him to a CBeebies character it would have been Tinky Winky; the Teletubby who always goes first. Tinky Winky can be a little indecisive and his favourite thing is his red bag, just like the PM’s dispatch box.
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Most of all, he loves big hugs – insert your own Jennifer Arcuri joke here. Mrs Jurance goes onto say the PM is untrustworthy and has a limited attention span, something you could never say of Tinky Winky.
Another reader, Graham Leddington, of Wellington, says it’s unfair to lambast super-distancer SuperDom for travelling to Barnard Castle because only people who are – and we quote – ‘a bit thick’, thank you Mr Leddington – would make choices for themselves based upon what someone may do or not do.
He says if we suffer a second wave it will be because large numbers of people think it’s okay to do as they please. Just like super-distancer, SuperDom.
Still, hope springs eternal. In New Zealand, world class Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is moving the country to its lowest alert level after defeating the virus. She’s opening public and private events, retail, hospitality, public transport and domestic travel without restrictions.
It’s news that Mrs Jurance, Mr Leddington and the rest of us might only dream of.
