Even Boris Johnson’s attempts to reassure look like distress flares from a clown marooned on a fantasy island
When a political crisis reaches a certain pitch, emergency and absurdity start to sound the same. “The main message is: please don’t travel to Kent,” Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, declared in a live press conference on Monday evening. It made perfect sense in context. Kent is the hotspot for a new variant of the coronavirus. France had sealed its borders. The prime minister offered reassurance that the nation’s food supply was secure.
Related: The UK government’s chaotic handling of Covid made a Christmas U-turn inevitable | Catherine Haddon
