Santa maybe
WITH just four days to go, the public still has no certainty over whether Christmas Day will go ahead without advice to limit family mixing, or if the days which follow will be wrecked by new Covid restrictions.
Boris Johnson’s two-hour Cabinet meeting yesterday ended without any firm conclusion and the PM saying only that he “reserves the possibility of taking further action” to protect the NHS.
Sceptical ministers are right to demand more data before they agree to go further than the current Plan B.
Given Sage’s woeful, scaremongering track record on predictions, there can be no headlong rush into economically ruinous new curbs based on its latest worst-case scenario for Omicron.
The public, though, is bound to feel frustrated by this Crimbo limbo — while businesses are in utter despair.
Hospitality takings have already plummeted, thanks to the dire warnings from doommonger scientists, footfall for the shops is down and the cries for help are getting ever louder.
Pubs don’t even know whether to order fresh supplies of beer in case they’re closed down before New Year’s Eve or are forced to ask customers to shiver outside in the cold.
A rare plus is that the booster jab rollout is hitting top speed — with almost two million delivered over the weekend.
We need to continue this fantastic effort… and hope the PM is persuaded not to wreck Christmas all over again.
Channel anger
WHAT will it take for ministers on both sides of the Channel to get a grip of the continuing flow of illegal migrants?
The number risking their lives to reach our shores in inflatable boats this year is now well over three times as high as the 8,400 who did so last year.
Anyone who hoped the terrible drowning of 27 people last month might deter others from attempting the perilous journey was sadly mistaken.
To cross one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, in such flimsy craft, in thick fog, as more than 1,000 did in the past four days, could all too easily have ended in fresh tragedy.
The criminal gangs who sent them on their way don’t care. They are making too much money.
Meanwhile, French and British authorities keep presiding over lethal levels of failure.
Lost your head
TODAY’S lesson in woke nonsense comes from the headteacher of Bolton St Catherine’s Academy, Greater Manchester.
Rachael Lucas says the roles of head boy and head girl are “outdated” and has changed them to “head’s ambassadors”.
It surely can’t be long before they ditch the term “head” too, for fear of offending those who wish to identify with a different part of the body.
