Omicron crisis
WITH depressing familiarity, Boris Johnson addressed the nation on a Sunday night in December to warn of a growing threat to the NHS at Christmas.
The PM deserves credit for turbo-charging the booster campaign first in response to the Omicron crisis rather than giving in immediately to the doom-mongers and serving up further restrictions.
Dire predictions of one million mutant variant cases by the turn of the year and tens of thousands of deaths suggest we are being softened up for some version of Lockdown Lite soon.
So while there is no firm data to suggest Omicron is as lethal as the Delta variant, the Government must hold firm and allow Plan B to do its job.
Shutting down the country for a fourth time would hammer the economy.
The sick and the vulnerable — like murdered Arthur Labinjo-Hughes — will suffer again. Schools must not remain closed after the Christmas holidays.
The touted million infections could turn out to be just a million heavy colds.
Hold your nerve, Prime Minister.
Party clear-up
AT a time when he needs to be focussed relentlessly on Omicron, Boris continues to be stuck at the bottom of a deep political hole of No10’s own making.
Partygate, the hangover from sleaze, a potentially disastrous by-election defeat and a mass rebellion by his own MPs over vaccine passports all add up to this week being among his toughest ever.
He needs to tackle the general sense of chaos enveloping Downing Street.
It should wound the PM deeply to see the BBC reporting him hosting a Christmas charity quiz on Zoom as if it was a scandal to rival Watergate.
Obviously, it isn’t. But Number 10’s disastrous handling of it has allowed their enemies to make hay.
A demonstration of firm leadership could start by getting those Red Wall Tories making threats to unseat him into No10 and reminding them they’re only in Parliament because of his electoral triumph all of two years ago.
The PM needs to get a grip – but so do some of his MPs.
Baddiel agony
ANYONE who doubts the pernicious influence of social media should read the heart-breaking story of Dolly Baddiel.
Dolly, daughter of Three Lions comedian David, battled anorexia. It was made worse by vile “competitive eating” Instagram accounts.
Any heavily regulated newspaper or TV station in this country would be shut down for publishing such material.
Yet Facebook — owners of Instagram — escape all consequence and merely rake in tens of millions more in profits.
Why do we allow it?
