“We have no choice but to return to a national lockdown,” Boris Johnson told the Commons this afternoon. MPs have been recalled to vote this evening on the tougher restrictions that came into force in England overnight. The lockdown law makes it illegal to leave your home in England without a reasonable excuse.
The government is hoping the restrictions will buy time until vaccination is sufficiently widespread to prevent hospitals being swamped.
Undermining the upbeat message Johnson delivered at the No 10 press conference yesterday, Matt Hancock told MPs last night that vaccinating the top four most vulnerable groups by mid-February is a “best-case scenario”. Could it be that Johnson overpromised, and presented a hope as a likelihood? Uncharacteristic, yes – but possible.
Nadhim Zahawi, the minister in charge of vaccine rollout, has promised a “massive acceleration” and assured high-street chemists, whose offers to help had previously been ignored, that they would be “involved”. Seven mass vaccination centres are due to open next week.
Only a handful of Tory backbenchers are expected to vote against the law, citing concerns over how long lockdown might last. The regulations allow for restrictions until the end of March, though the PM was keen to emphasise that they would be relaxed before then “if conditions were met.” Progress will be reviewed in mid-February, but Johnson also spoke of “a slow emergence from the lockdown cocoon.”
With Labour saying it will back the lockdown law, the vote is sure to go through. Keir Starmer continues to calculate that undermining the government at every turn isn’t a good look. Instead, he’s adopted a cooperative, more statesmanlike approach on the big policy decision while criticising the sluggish pace of vaccine rollout.
But will the restrictions actually work?
Adherence is tricky to gauge, but it’s difficult to imagine that after eight months of state micromanagement of daily life, lockdown policy isn’t suffering from diminishing returns. In a highly unscientific straw poll, almost everyone I know is now following the spirit rather than the letter of the law, having come up with their own rules of thumb to stay safe while doing more than simply surviving.
With enforcement all but impossible, the government is relying on public goodwill. There might not be much left.
Mass arrests in Hong Kong
Dozens of activists and politicians have been arrested in Hong Kong in the biggest crackdown since a highly controversial security law was imposed on the territory last year.
Dawn raids this morning saw more than 1000 police officers round up 53 prominent pro-democracy figures who had participated in an unofficial “primary” to pick opposition candidates for the delayed 2020 elections.
The Chinese Communist Party has insisted that the law, introduced in June last year in response to pro-democracy protests, would target only a small number of criminals intent on undermining China’s stability and security. It now appears that any attempt to take on the pro-Beijing bias in Hong Kong’s parliament is being treated as seditious.
The arrests have stunned the people of Hong Kong and been met with international condemnation. But with the ink still wet on an EU-China investment treaty, Beijing might not take the West’s rebukes as seriously as hoped.
Good moooorning, Mister Beeb
The BBC will help children to keep up their education during lockdown by broadcasting lessons on TV, as well as online.
BBC2 will show two hours of secondary school programming every day while CBBC will broadcast shows like Operation Ouch, Horrible Histories and Celebrity Supply Teacher, aimed at primary school kids.
It’s hoped the move will benefit children whose parents can’t afford data packages necessary to support online learning.
Any initiative that puts more Horrible Histories on the airwaves can only be a good thing. The show is pitched at youngsters but it’s written by and stars some of Britain’s best comedy talent. And with all the grizzly bits left in it’s a comforting reminder that, hard as it might be to believe at the moment, things were actually a lot worse in the past.
Mattie Brignal,
News Editor