The Prime Minister is like a man who finds a wasps’ nest in his house – and burns the house down to get rid of it.
The wasps, having more sense than him, flew off as soon as they felt the heat. But the house is gone.
Now he stands by the smouldering ruins, blaming everyone but himself for this futile catastrophe.
I suspect that some of the things he said on Tuesday night will bring him down, especially the outrageous threat to use troops. If we have been as well-behaved as he pretends to believe, how can such things be justified?
His actions make nonsense of his words. It was the same when he said: ‘I am deeply, spiritually reluctant to make any of these impositions, or infringe anyone’s freedom.’
No he is not. If he was, he would have listened to the many brilliant experts whose wise counsel he has ignored from the start, such as Sunetra Gupta, John Lee and Carl Heneghan.
They would have told him that the wild prophecies of Imperial College, and the equally wild projections offered on Monday by Messrs Vallance and Whitty, Undertakers to the Nation, were not necessarily right.
Johnson was never compelled to strangle the economy and turn daily life into a crime. He chose to do it.
