A failure of leadership has cut deep with people in Paddy Ashdown’s old Lib Dem stronghold, for whom Covid has meant sacrifice
The Christmas lights are twinkling and there is even an energetic fiddler playing a jaunty folk tune in the heart of Yeovil – but voters in this Somerset town have little festive cheer for Boris Johnson’s beleaguered government.
Alison Johnstone, 60, can no longer bring herself to vote Conservative. The last straw was the sight of scores of Conservative MPs voting against public health measures proposed by the government last week. “It was so wrong,” says Johnstone, who is a physiotherapist at Yeovil hospital. “I’m NHS, and it doesn’t make sense to not bring in all the extra precautions – and you can’t help thinking: is it because they wanted to keep partying?”
