Sunday Blog 14: Waiting For Boris

There is little point in commenting today until after Boris has delivered his address to the nation later, so expect a mid-week follow on as the situation becomes less confused. For confused it certainly is with briefings this way and that, messaging which says one thing and means another, cracks in the four nation unified approach, doubts about testing efficiency, questions about the vital new phone app and so much else that it is hard to know where to start. At this moment the government appears to be losing its touch and the public is showing signs of becoming less compliant to its leadership. Tonight at 7pm, Boris has to clear up a lot of muddles and misunderstandings. Only then will we know where we are headed and whether it is in the right direction.

What was a crisis of saving lives from being taken by Covid 19, is now that plus a crisis of economic damage on a scale unseen before in peacetime and collateral death and illness caused by the lock down and withdrawal of all but emergency services by the NHS. Boris knows that he has tonight to be at his best, because lurking in the corner is the early shape of a political crisis. That is the only thing he truly fears. The problem for him is that fighting a pandemic depends on a mastery of interlocking detail. And detail is the thing at which he is worst.