IT would be wrong to blame lockdown for the heart-rending fate of six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes.
But there is something in it.
Yes, Arthur’s cruel father and vile stepmother inflicted the physical torture which killed this poor boy. Let’s hope there is a special place in hell for them both.
And yes, social services failed again to protect a vulnerable child reported to them as a likely victim of unimaginable violence.
But the closure of schools at the height of the Covid panic also removed a crucial chance to spot the 130 bruises on this poor lad’s body.
Certainly his absence from the classroom would have been noted.
Yet with millions of children now jabbed and immune, 200,000 pupils are absent from classrooms today as militant teachers and Sage communists clamour to work from home.
That, warns Children’s Commissioner Rachel de Souza, would put the life chances of a whole generation in peril.
Asked about the failure of police and social services to save little Arthur, Dame Rachel — appointed by Boris Johnson to promote and protect the rights of all children — bluntly blamed lockdown.
“I have no doubt lockdown was such a shock that it weakened systems of support,” she told the BBC’s Andrew Marr.
“It was a terrible time for the whole nation and it is why we must never close schools again.
“School is where children want to be.
“We need teachers to dig down and ask why children are not at school — to go out there and bring them in.”
In a direct plea to the Prime Minister, she added: “I would urge Boris Johnson not to close schools.”
Dame Rachel was speaking about her commission’s survey of more than 500,000 children, which revealed scars inflicted by closures.
“Children are concerned about being away from school, being outdoors with their friends, about their education and being allowed to play,” she said.
“They missed their older relatives, they missed funerals, they didn’t know how to make friends any more. We can’t let them down again.”
We have heard plenty from experts about the dire impact of lockdown on the NHS, our high-street shopping centres, foreign holidays and personal freedoms.
Here was a heartfelt plea on behalf of youngsters who depend upon their elders and betters and in turn volunteer for a jab to protect their mums and dads.
“This is an altruistic generation,” said Dame Rachel. “We should be very grateful to them.”
Covid’s impact on children is among the unforeseen consequences of once-unimaginable social incarceration — invented by communist China and swallowed by the West.
Untold thousands have suffered needlessly from non-Covid conditions like cancer, heart and kidney disease and mental health problems among children and the elderly.
The pandemic caused a perhaps irreversible shift in the way we live our lives, from loneliness and insecurity to a rise in petty and serious crime.
A new drug epidemic was triggered by an absence of authority and the obsession with Covid to the exclusion of everything else.
Police stopped policing, decriminalising drugs by turning a blind eye and abandoning streets to gangs of howling hoodies.
So today, the reek of pot fills the air, alleged drug-peddling is rampant in the House of Commons and Wembley has been invaded by hordes of cocaine-fuelled thugs.
Why should police care when elected politicians surrender to identity activists, illegal migrants and a pernicious blame game over race and gender?
Voters — especially Tory voters — are seriously fed up. Many are watching Red Wall hero Nigel Farage’s nightly GB News show.
Which explains the latest spurt of diversion therapy from Number 10.
So ministers are considering deploying sniffer dogs in Parliament to catch the MPs and staffers who fund murderous crime gangs for a few snorts of class-A drugs.
There is talk about a UK Bill of Rights in place of EU laws covering cross-Channel boats.
And maybe support for a free Press against the likes of Meghan Markle.
There is also encouragement for cancel-culture victims such as JK Rowling and pilloried university chiefs. All good news.
But will anything actually happen?
As always with BoJo, you can believe it when you see it.
