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Every cloud has a silver lining. As the increasingly protracted Brexit trade talks – Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen appear on a mission to prove Zeno’s paradox – have made most of the headlines over the past week, the coronavirus has been relegated to second point of most newsletters.
Which turned out to be an unexpected bonus for Matt Hancock as he found his workload significantly reduced. A single Downing Street press conference, in which he had precisely nothing to say, and a single appearance in the Commons in which he made a lap of victory after the administration of the first vaccine . Otherwise not much really. It was almost a week off.
But with the coronavirus showing no signs of disappearing, Hancock was back in the bedroom to make a statement on the crisis. Having started with his usual remarks about the “sacrifice,” “the strain of all nerves,” and the “national effort” which he now cuts and sticks from all his previous statements, Matt got down to business. This did not allow easy listening.
First, there was a new variant of Covid that could have been responsible for the increase in transmission rates in the Southeast – he hoped, but couldn’t promise, it was no worse than the first iteration of Covid and would respond to the vaccine.
Then we got to the basics that everyone already knew because it had been posted on social media hours before.
Although the official prioritization review date is two days away, due to the increased rate of transmission, the government had to act faster by placing London and parts of Essex and South Hertfordshire at level 3 from midnight Wednesday morning.
You could almost feel the panic in Door Matt’s voice, as another government move to control the virus had only been shown to be partially effective. Although oddly, some Tories seemed to think the new data meant that their own ridings should have been placed at Level 1 from the start.
Jon Ashworth of Labor, the shadow health secretary, responded more with sadness than anger. As if he was just grateful that he wasn’t the minister stuck in the midst of hawkish cabinet colleagues bent on keeping as much of the economy open as possible regardless of what the scientists advised.
Ashworth began by saying that it was only a matter of time before London and parts of the South East moved to level 3, as this is where they should have been since the very beginning of the new one. government system.
He also observed that level 3 did not appear to do much to control the spread of the virus in Kent, which was already at level 3. He left open the question of whether the government had a plan if the level 3 was found to be ineffective on a larger scale.
So Hancock didn’t feel obligated to say if there would be a new Tier 4 tier, whether he was going to rethink the prioritization system for the third time, or impose another national lockdown. For which he thanked for his little mercies, because the three options must be on his mind.
While not asking for the five days of Christmas Free for All to be taken away, Ashworth gently wondered if it was a good idea to effectively suspend all three levels on Christmas. How was allowing a number of people, who may or may not have the virus, to travel across the country to spend time with elderly relatives in the lower levels, in any sense of the word, safe?
Lib Dem Munira Wilson and Conservative Tobias Ellwood have been rather more outspoken. It clearly made no sense to risk the health of so many people, so soon after the government imposed restrictions to ease both the burden on the NHS and the number of deaths. Here, Door Matt sounded genuinely conflicted: his voice grew more fragile and he hit the shipping box in frustration. You get the feeling that if it was up to him, he would cancel Christmas here and now.
But since Boris had promised the country to give everyone the chance to kill family members, the prime minister was determined not to let anyone down. Typical. You wait years for Johnson to keep a promise and he ends up keeping the one you wish he didn’t.
So all Matt could do was come up with a few platitudes. Just because people got to see their families, he said, didn’t mean they had to. Most people’s Christmases ended in some sort of argument, so why not cut your pre-game losses and stay home after all? Or just drive 200 miles to see your grandparents and just talk to them through the window for a few minutes. Either way, I’m not sure that’s the case.
At the Downing Street press conference an hour later, some of the negativity seemed to have rubbed off on Hancock. The past few months have left scars on him and there are few signs of the enthusiastic old Tigger. As you might expect, most of the questions revolved around the wisdom of the five-day Christmas amnesty and, with Chris Whitty looking less than thrilled at the prospect – all he was willing to say was that it ‘was a time of year when people like to see their loved ones, but they should do so responsibly, that is, not at all – Matt has become noticeably more evasive about when or if he should there may be other restrictions.
“People should be careful,” Matt said cautiously, before insisting that he wouldn’t be afraid to take further action if necessary. Although he has hedged his bets on whether this action will come before or after Christmas if infection levels continue to rise. Notably because it was a decision well above his level of remuneration.
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