I am so relieved that at long last UK media are beginning to react to this shitshow. I live in Belgium, and have key worker family in London and the Midlands.I spent 5 weeks becoming ever more incredulous and frantic at the dithering, denial, and failure to act by this govt.
I saw no reporting in the UK of what went on the weekend before Johnson finally closed pubs, etc that Monday evening. He had to be dragged kicking and screaming into action. Read this, just one of the reports of those events over here -
""Excerpt from an article by Jean Quatremer in the French daily Libération, last Saturday:
Coronavirus: Behind the scenes of the tussle between Emmanuel Macron and Boris Johnson
Everything was ready to close the border between France and the United Kingdom on Friday evening. That very morning, Emmanuel Macron called the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, to warn him: if he persisted in taking no measures to stop the progression of the coronavirus pandemic on his territory, France would have no choice but to refuse entry to all travellers coming from the UK, i.e. to consider it as a third country. And all the other European states would have done the same, which would have been very bad news for the British economy and the government's "benign neglect" policy. "We had to clearly threaten him in order for him to finally move," the Elysée Palace admits. With the ultimatum set, "BoJo" had to resign himself to "asking", not without reluctance, pubs, cafés, bars, restaurants and other social gathering places, such as theatres, cinemas and sports halls, to close from Friday evening.
When the 27 decided on March 17 to close their external borders for 30 days, the UK, which left the EU on January 31st, benefited nevertheless from an exception: "Legally, it is part of the single market until December 31st 2020 and we are still very integrated economically," it is explained in Paris. "So London had to close its external borders together with us. In addition, there was the issue of the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland which had to be kept open." But faced with BoJo's persistent refusal to budge, even Dublin said it was prepared to close its border with Belfast, regardless of the symbolic significance of the event. [...]
But even if BoJo has moved under threat, it is still a long way from the Italian, Spanish, French or Belgian confinement. [...]"
This govt may like to calculate how many lives have been saved by Macron and Varadkar's intervention that weekend. And how many have died, and will die, in the UK, as a result of the govt's insouciance and failure to act earlier.
I'm also relieved Johnson was discharged. We should be spared the Boris-as-sainted-martyr scenario, and demand and get accountability. In the meantime, the clapping for Boris makes me want to throw up.