Boris Johnson dices with death to generate a feelgood factor - Dani Garavelli

The Prime Minister’s catastrophic handling of the possible lifting of lockdown oughtn’t to have come as a surprise to anyone.

Boris Johnson outside No 10 Downing Street on VE Day. Picture: Peter Summers/Getty

Looking to Boris Johnson for consistency is as futile as looking to him for empathy, or decorum, or sexual continence. Hell, he couldn’t even get the story of his time in intensive care straight. One day we were being told he remained in good spirits with no need of a respirator, the next that doctors had been preparing to announce his death.

Johnson says whatever he thinks will serve him best at the precise moment he opens his mouth. If it is important for him to appear to have everything under control, then a dose of Covid-19 is not affecting his ability to work. If he hopes to promote an image of himself as a great British battler, then he has gone three rounds with the Grim Reaper and come out victorious.

Of course, it is particularly difficult to maintain a consistent line on something you failed to properly establish in the first place. From the outset, Johnson has vacillated in his handling of the pandemic, moving from prioritising the economy to prioritising health; from herd immunity to flattening the curve.

He couldn’t even send out a clear message over not shaking hands, continuing to press the flesh with patients and staff at a Covid-19 infected hospital, though scientists had expressly asked him to advise the public to find other forms of greeting.

His shilly-shallying – particularly in relation to the cancellation of mass gatherings – is the reason we entered lockdown later than our European counterparts and explains why tens of thousand of people have been allowed to enter the UK without testing or quarantine (weird that it took a pandemic to get our xenophobic government to embrace an open border policy).

Any hope Johnson’s own brush with Covid-19 might have focused his mind evaporated last week as he started to send out mixed signals over the possible easing of lockdown. With many people chafing at the bit to restart their lives, it was crucial to get the messaging on this right. A misjudgment in timing or presentation could lead to a sudden influx of people to public spaces and a second spike in infections.

So what did Johnson do? He briefed the newspapers (or allowed others to brief them on his behalf). He did this without discussing his plans with Nicola Sturgeon or Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford, several days in advance of his official statement. He may demur, but somehow many editors gained the clear impression that the “Stay at Home” slogan was to be dropped.

What happened next was as predictable as it was damaging. “Magic Monday”; “Hurrah, lockdown freedom beckons” ran the headlines on the 75th anniversary of VE Day. It was almost as if another enemy had been vanquished when in fact the number of deaths in the previous 24 hours was 636, and the UK’s overall toll had just surpassed Italy’s to become the highest in Europe.

Inside, the papers speculated about what liberties would now be granted. Sunbathing, picnics, rambling, suggested the Guardian. (English) primary schools back by June.

By Friday night, the TV news and social media was awash with footage of heaving parks and esplanades, as well as barbecues and street gatherings, from Portobello to Portsmouth.

Well, what did you think would happen, Mr Prime Minister, if you encouraged the newspapers to print “Lockdown Over” splashes on the eve of a Bank Holiday weekend? And how on earth do you expect to row back from this now so many people feel they have been given a licence to party? Will anyone hear Johnson proclaim the need for “extreme caution” in his speech today, over the din of celebration? And who is going to take his “roadmap to unlock the economy” seriously when he is incapable of comporting himself with the slightest gravitas?

The Prime Minister’s cheap stunt has made things more difficult for himself, but also for Sturgeon and Drakeford, who now have to promote their “Stay at Home” message against a backdrop of increased socialising.

There are many criticisms that may be levelled at Sturgeon over PPE and testing, but she has been rock steady on the need for us all to obey social distancing rules. One of the reasons the Janey Godley voiceovers have been so effective is because she captures this relentlessness. “Stay at home, just stay the F*** at home, so we don’t all die,” has been the Scottish government line from the moment the First Minister “bounced” Johnson into finally banning mass gatherings. Sturgeon has treated us like grown-ups capable of accepting the need for ongoing restrictions without offering us false hope about how long it will last.

Clearly exasperated, she insisted the four nations of the UK could take different approaches on lockdown, but that’s easier said than done, especially given the furlough scheme – which bails out those who cannot work because businesses are shut – is run by Westminster.

Boris’s “shenanigans”, as Godley put it, have come at a time when lockdown was already under pressure. It may be true that here in Scotland there has been more compliance, but our youngsters (and even our oldsters) are not immune to growing frustration or peer group pressure.

We know there has been a rise in traffic in recent weeks, and in youths congregating to drink and smoke in the sun, with no sign of social distancing.

The reopening of many takeaways isn’t helping, as the queue of cars outside the Costa Coffee drive-through at the Braehead Centre in Glasgow demonstrated. Nor is the constant pressure to reopen garden centres. When young people see their friends posting Instagram pictures of themselves out and about – or when they pass groups of lads playing five-aside as they take their state-sanctioned exercise – the temptation to join in must be enormous.

What was needed in the face of this weakening of resolve was a Cobra meeting, a united front, a redoubling of the message – a rallying of the nation behind “one big push”. Instead, what we got was Johnson shooting from the hip; and a crass attempt to generate a short-term lift at the expense of the long-term interests of the country.

The UK has already paid the price for his inability to take tough decisions – the failure to cancel the Cheltenham Festival is said to have had drastic consequences. If the R0 – the average number of people a Covid-19 sufferer will go on to infect – rises above one again in the next few weeks, we will know where the blame lies.

Inevitably, the more Johnson cocks up, the more Sturgeon shines. Her stock has risen during the course of the pandemic. Cutting her out of the loop plays to her advantage politically. But this will be little consolation to her if death rates start to rise again. Just as the memory of the Bank Holiday festivities will be little consolation to those who partied if lockdown restrictions have to be tightened instead of loosened. Or if they lose loved ones to a second wave of infection like the one now hitting China.

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