Tighter Covid-19 restrictions, including a possible England-wide lockdown after Christmas to control the rapidly spreading mutant variant of the deadly virus, appear increasingly inevitable.
The admission by the Government’s top scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance is at least a glimpse of honesty.
Boris Johnson frequently evades the truth until left with no other option.
Truck chaos in Kent, as other nations isolate Britain, is only the latest phase of a shambles lasting since March, with the Prime Minister making one wrong decision after another.
First a Christmas easing he should never have promised, then spreading panic by reversing it for large chunks of the country.
There is no crisis Johnson cannot worsen.
The new, easier-to-catch virus is undoubtedly frightening and it is the nation’s tragedy that we have a leader not up to the job.
Difficult Brexit negotiations are unlikely to generate goodwill among our neighbours, yet Johnson is the real liability – a Tory PM without the ability or guile to take the right decisions.
The vaccine is good news. The bad news is a Premier blundering in a major emergency.
End this evil
THE terrible deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants in a lorry trailer in Essex illustrated the vileness of people-smuggling.
We see the faces of men and women hoping to build better lives. The criminal gangs exploiting their hopes see only pound signs.
Guilty verdicts in court cannot bring back the deceased but long sentences might deter some of the crooks seeking a fast buck.
Every nation has a right to police its borders, yet we must acknowledge that most migrants contribute hugely to society.
Unless we open legal and regulated paths to entry, people-smugglers will continue to profit hugely from the dreams of the desperate.
Year to forget
TV soap Christmas cliff-hangers have transfixed us for years.
This time it is impossible to top real life, with fact stranger than fiction in the year of Covid.
