The above pic of Johnson highlights the very different way in which the EU and the UK is approaching the effort to vaccinate those most at risk from COVID. For their is no reason why Boris should be there except to get the media coverage.

It is hard to imagine a senor EU official arranging a media event where he/she could be pictured watching vaccination in action. Their job is to follow the rules that exist and those in charge of the EU programme are not elected officers who have an eye for the next round of elections. The ability for them to cut corners is much more complex and takes time. There’s a complex political approval process which can drag out.

Contrast that with the Johnson government approach where there was a huge decision in the summer fork out billions to back likely successful vaccine projects and the efforts once they became available to fast track the approval processes.

Boris took a huge gamble in the summer with the agreement to purchase huge amounts of the two leading vaccine prospects well before it was clear that they would work.

With every move at the moment from Brussels you can almost feel their frustration because clearly the contrast between the total of UK people being vaccinated and those within the EU is very sharp.

Now the we have the EU threat to prevent the world’s largest pharmaceutical company from fulfilling an order placed well before the EU got its act together.

This might not end well.