Covid-19 Lockdown NOW INEVITABLE

Exhortations to stay at home and cease social gatherings, including family visits, are falling on deaf ears. Non-food stores are not only still open; they are seeing the usual Sunday level of shoppers, and those who are just browsing as a way of getting them and their families out of the house for half a day. The uncertainty of the self-employed means that market traders are still setting out their stalls all over the UK.

Decisions, decisions

What this means has been spelt out for us time and again, yet there is, as usual, precious little leadership from alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, just more of those same exhortations. He even had to have two goes at getting his advice for Mothers Day (don’t visit in person) right. Meanwhile, the warnings come thick and fast.

Bozo is reluctant to lockdown. He apparently only moved to close pubs after Président Macron leaned on him, or face the border being closed. Why has been spelt out by Inigo Martincorena of Cambridge’s Sanger Institute: “The trend continues unabated. The UK epidemic is growing at the same rate as Italy’s 14-15 days ago, doubling in size every 2.9 days. We need a UK lockdown by tomorrow just to be as badly hit as Italy is now”.

The trend is that in Covid-19 related deaths, which in Italy are now into the multiple thousands each day. From the Imperial School of Public Health, Prof Helen Ward has urged action. “LOCKDOWN now. Massive testing, isolate all cases and contacts. Stay inside, support the vulnerable”. Francesca Ciccarelli of KCL added “no adequate measures in place … usual amount of people walking in Camden on a typical Sunday afternoon”.

It was no better at major supermarkets, as Alessandro Aurigi noted. “Dear [Tesco], this was the situation this morning at the special NHS opening at your Lee Mill shop (Ivybridge) … 40 mins in a queue. The whole store was carnage … a nice idea gone wrong. So many doctors and nurses all squeezed together when they should be safeguarded”.

It was different across the Channel. Laura Parker told that “At our local, north Italy town, supermarket staff let 3/4 ppl in at a time, those outside Q a safe distance from one another. No panic, shelves well stocked, nobody buying more than they need”. John Clarke was shopping in Belgium: “no shortages, staff in masks cleaning the trolleys and shelves, rules on 2m distance, tills disinfected and customers being very considerate”.

But it wasn’t the case in London, as BBC Brexitcast creator Dino Sofos found to his horror. “Columbia Road flower market, East London” was rammed with punters. The crowds would have been driven by that lack of certainty for the self-employed. Small wonder that Match of the Day lead presenter Gary Lineker mused “Can’t help feeling we should have been officially locked down by now. So many ignoring/misunderstanding government advice. We’re sleepwalking into a nightmare”. Action needs to be taken. It hasn’t been.

Exactly what needs to happen, and what is going to come further down the line whether we like it or not, has been spelt out by Neil Wilby, who is in Spain. “This is what crisis leadership looks like ~ Almost total lockdown (day 9) here in Spain is highly inconvenient, but absolutely necessary”. PM Pedro Sánchez has warned things will get worse first.

Sánchez also said “I am the prime minister and I assume all responsibility”. If only our own Prime Minister would show the same leadership. The buck, after all, stops with him.

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