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The big plan was that today would be dominated by Johnson’s big speech to the nation with all the Churchillian undertones to celebrate how the country had got through the COVID crisis and now, thanks to the vaccination success, we could look forward to a new future. Even the name Freedom Day fits in with the wartime references. Unfortunately, COVID is still with us with huge numbers of new cases each day. There is some consolation to be had by…

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Savanta/ComRes has carried out a quickie poll today on the story that’s been dominating UK politics – the apparenty effort, since abandoned, to dodge the isolation rules. The poll of English adults had 60% saying that the plan by the Prime Minister and the Chancellor to not self-isolate having been a close contact of a positive coronavirus case was unfair. Just 33% say that the original plan for the Prime Minister and Chancellor to instead be part of a pilot…

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At least they had the nouse to U-turn For months it seems we have been hearing from ministers about July 19th which has been dubbed Freedom Day to mark the end of the COVID restrictions. This was going to be a big moment for Johnsson and his team and a time to celebrate yet again the success of their vaccination programme. Then HealthSec Javid contracted COVID prompting the multi-billion pound NHS test and trace service to pin the two men…

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Punters make it a 67% chance that restrictions will be re-introduced before the year end With so-called Freedom Day scheduled for tomorrow, several of the papers are leading on the fact that this is going to be nothing like what BoJo had declared not so long ago. It is not helped by the fact that HealthSec Javid has now contracted the virus. This is how the S Times is reporting it: Britain faces disruption to food supplies, transport networks and…

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One of the big assertions about July 19th is that this will go on being designated “Freedom Day” although the main effort thereafter will be to encourage us all to maintain the habits that we have all become used to. The big difference is that anybody who doesn’t want to follow this can do so without fear of penalty. It has been made very clear that there will be no reintroduction of compulsory controls – the big question is whether…

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Even the fully vaccinated are being ordered home Quite what ministers do about this one is hard to say but when one of the main mechanisms in controlling the virus is being deleted off their phones by users then there is a serious issue. You can understand why because after a year and a half of controls large numbers are being confined to their homes because the app tells them that they should. This is affecting the hospitality and retail…

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Going beyond four years adds to the risk I have just bet at 3.6 on Betfair that 2023 will be the year of the next general election. The Fixed-term Parliament Act is being replaced by a new measure that puts the control of the next election date into the hands of the prime minister My guess is that BoJo/Sunak or whoever the PM will be in a couple of years’ time won’t want to risk hanging on until the latest…

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