Did we offer people £500 to get in the Air Raid Shelter or close the curtains during the Blitz? Just asking for a friend!
It is a completely mad idea that will cost half a BILLION quid a week.
I just hope that he is flying a kite because if not, he needs to not only be put in self-isolation but sectioned!
Yesterday, when Boris was asked directly whether the country was looking at summer rather than spring for an easing of lockdown, he replied, ‘I think it's too early to say when we'll be able to lift some of the restrictions.’
Let me just translate that ‘Government speak’ for you, it means that we are going to be in some form of lockdown until at least September.
Obviously, despite the 70 Tory backbenchers who are screaming for a date in March to relax lockdown, Boris can’t and shouldn’t do that due to the new and emerging mutant strains.
So, if that is the case, and it doesn’t need either Mystic Meg or Morse to deduce that, does it? Boris needs to level with us tonight in his press conference and at last come clean with the British public.
He needs to give us it straight. He needs to even agree with Joe Biden and state categorically that we are at war and it is going to be a long hard slog and that the country needs us all to pull together and trust each other.
There is light at the end of the tunnel but Boris needs to state that it’s a bloody long tunnel and that we all have to play our part.
Boris, please don’t give us an optimistic early date but instead paint the realistic picture. We’ve all had enough of this stop-start approach.
Boris also needs to accept that he and the Government made a mistake in not closing down the country, including airports back in March.
He should apologise to us for that grave mistake and now promise that he’s going to turn the UK into Fortress Britain.
It is also obvious that we need to copy the Australian model and force everyone who still enters the UK to pay for their own quarantine in hotels near airport terminals.
Instead of coming out with bonkers ideas, Boris also needs to be addressing the alarming fact that ten thousand pubs, clubs and restaurants have already been closed forever.
Where’s the carrot?
So, if he now wants the ones that are left to stay closed until September to help win this battle, then he needs to provide real support for the hospitality sector and appoint a Minister for Hospitality which would include everything from Glastonbury to back street boozers and small hotels.
He also needs to extend the business rates relief for the sector and the VAT after they’re allowed to re-open and we are on top of the virus.
There’s also a desperate need for him to state categorically that Rishi is going to extend the furlough for as long as it takes from today.
He also needs to re-define what a key worker is as too many are still going to work as evidenced by the traffic which is much heavier than during the first lockdown.
Instead of offering £500 to everyone who self isolates, he needs to provide real equal financial support to the excluded 3 million who have not received any cash at all from the public purse.
Of course, the Universal Credit rise needs to be extended until the UK is out of danger.
All of these measures will give us some kind of certainty and in return we would feel more confident of our futures after this storm passes.
Bring out the stick!
So that’s the ‘carrot.’ It was also good to see Priti bringing out the ‘stick’ yesterday but as well as extending the carrot we need the stick to a be a lot bloody bigger!
The majority of Brits are following the rules but those who don’t need a real ‘beating’. So why limit the new £800-pound fines just to parties of more than 15?
The rules are clear: NO household mixing, so it should be an 800 quid fine for anyone breaking the rule and I mean anyone.
The travel ban needs to be enforced with an absolute iron fist and there should be no exclusions. That includes surgically enhanced ladies from Love Island, top TV presenters and radio talk jocks as well as Government ministers.
Poll after poll shows that the vast majority of us want tougher lockdowns and understand that harsher rules combined with the vaccine rollout would at least pave a way out of this nightmare so I believe that the public would support Boris if he got tougher, much tougher.
However, there is a major question of trust and lack of faith in politicians. The only way for trust to start to be restored is for Boris to face the public and apologise for his past mistakes. Then he needs to use his personality and charisma to inspire us again, as he did when he won his landslide victory just over 12 months ago.
Boris put the kites down. The ball is in your court! Now act.
