Life in Lockdown - B is for Boris - A - Z Challenge 2021

Click here for the A-Z blog to find out more about this challenge.

B is for Boris as in Boris Johnson, UK Prime Minister, as in the man who will go down in history as the baffoon that totally mismanaged the Coronavirus pandemic.

So many mistakes were made during this time that already there have been clamourings for a public inquiry into what the Government did or didn't do.  Part of me thinks it's important that we learn the lessons of the mistakes, but, given the huge amount of money that has already been spent trying to keep people from going out of business etc, not to mention the cost of all the testing, vaccinating, healthcare and so on, do we really need the expense of a public inquiry?  

An inquiry would probably drag on for ages and cost a huge amount of public money and wouldn't change the statistic of how many people died.  Of course it might prevent mistakes being made in future but that will bring little comfort to those grieving for lost loved ones.

The catalogue of errors is extensive but to be fair, would any Government have done better?  These have been unprecedented times, so possibly not.  But there have been some glaring errors, not least the failure to lockdown soon enough and then opening up too soon and too fast last year.  Considering we're an island we should have been able to get a grip on things much better than we did. 

There was also the ridiculous episode when Boris's most trusted adviser, Dominic Cummings, blatantly broke the rules that were in place at the time and then proceeded to explain that he didn't on live TV.   It was laughable except it wasn't really funny.  Basically he went over his actions and tried to justify them, one by one, including going on a drive to test his eyesight after being unwell!  (Non UK readers could google Dominic Cummings + Barnard Castle if you do actually want a laugh.)   

From defective PPE to a track & trace service that was useless, one disaster seemed to follow another but Boris and his Government remain firmly in place.  Boris is a survivor.  He even survived a bout of Covid that had him in hospital in intensive care for a short time.   

The one good thing that has emerged from the pandemic so far is that we're doing well on the vaccine front.  Probably because Boris hasn't had much involvement with it.  I've had my first jab and hopefully it won't be too long before I get my second.  There is a chink of light at the end of the tunnel.