As Covid data emerges, decisions over England’s easing on 21 June will go down to the wire. We must hope No 10 gets it right
England faces the tensest two weeks of its entire lockdown. On 14 June, the government must decide if the long-promised “freedom day” of 21 June can proceed as promised. That promise has now been plunged into doubt. A three-day surge in “cases” of the variant of Covid first detected in India may, or may not, mark the start of a third wave of the coronavirus. Boris Johnson has promised that any more lockdown will be over his dead body, but Johnson’s body has already lost more lives than the proverbial cat.
We now know, thanks to the new patron saint of whistleblowers, Dominic Cummings, the scale of government ineptitude and shambles that attended the first two lockdowns. People can now scream at ministers to make up their minds, show judgment, give a steer, keep their promises. But today the issue is not one of judgment, but of facts. We await data much as a nation awaits news of a battle in distant parts. Without news, we cannot think how to act.
