Patrick Christys: Boris Johnson should be called General Indecision

I’m sick and tired of the uncertainty. I’m sick and tired of the not knowing.

Of the constant Covid sword of Damocles hanging over this nation’s head. This Hokey Cokey approach to the coronavirus has got this nation all shook up. It’s got us all in mental limbo.

It’s the not knowing. Whether or not people will stick to the rules is one thing, whether or not people agree with any restrictions is one thing - just look what happened last year when Whitty was like ‘don’t go home for Christmas’, ‘unpack your bags’, and then there was one of the largest queues ever at Euston station.

But last night we needed a plan from Boris and instead we got three hours of Cabinet discussion and absolutely no results whatsoever.The scientific community want him to act now - they want him to act early (some would say too early), to prevent a longer lockdown.

The majority of his cabinet want him to wait for the figures and then act, some people say that that would be too late.But instead we’ve just got nothing have we? We’ve just got a message from Boris saying he’s still reserving the right to impose restrictions before Christmas, I might do them after, I don’t know what I’m doing.

He can’t make his mind up - he’s the man you hate to go out to dinner with, the one who spends an hour deliberating what starter he’s going to order.It’s damaging the country’s mental health. I’m not saying he’s got an easy job at all, I really don’t envy him, but we do need leadership at the end of the day. Will we have Christmas together?

Will pubs and restaurants be open for Christmas? They need to know for sure - they could maybe still cancel stock, they could close and save on the electricity bills, the people who were still thinking of going out for Christmas dinner could now prepare for Christmas indoor and get the supplies in.People will have holidays booked - are they going to go on them?

Will we be able to travel back home for Christmas? People are elected to make decisions. People are elected sometimes to make unpopular decisions. People are not elected to make no decisions whatsoever. We cannot live our lives trapped in a vortex of Boris Johnson’s uncertainty.

Let’s have a look at what Boris Johnson is apparently considering: 1. Families will be asked to limit indoor contacts, without legal enforcement2. Mandate curbs on household mixing, the return of social distancing and an 8pm curfew on pubs and restaurants3. Lockdown - what are we hearing is the most likely option? Well, a month-long circuit breaker lockdown on or around December 28th. That’s what we’re hearing. So what does that mean?

Work from home if you can, No socialising indoors, Hairdressers Beauty Salons open, higher education to learn remotely, Indoor entertainment closed, no holidays.How do you feel about that?

Would you rather have had restrictions over Christmas to avoid longer, more draconian restrictions after Christmas?But to add to this absolute chaos, there are two more very important points that I’d like to raise.

Firstly, it’s emerged that apparently half of Covid patients in London hospitals were diagnosed with Covid after they arrived in hospital.

So it wasn’t Covid that hospitalised them. But they are classed as being in hospital with covid so it looks as though they’ve been levelled by this virus when, in fact, they haven’t been.This affects SAGE’s modelling, and means that doomsday predictions, yet again, of NHS hospitals being overwhelmed could be massively exaggerated.

Then, I now firmly believe that any kind of medical press conference should be followed or done ion conjunction with an economic conference. Government borrowing came in above expectations at £17.4billion - only £4.9billion below last year and the second highest on record.

Meanwhile, the country's debt pile had reached £2.32trillion by the end of the month - equivalent to 96.1 per cent of GDP, the worst ratio since 1963. Inflation is still surging and forcing the Bank of England to raise interest rates.

This is a very difficult conversation to have but are we now at a stage where we have to have a chat as a nation about at what cost do we impose restrictions, especially if hospitalisations and deaths aren’t spiralling.

Boris Johnson has got to man up. He’s got to pick a side and stick to it. Because what people hate, more than the wrong decision, is no decision at all.

People want to like Boris Johnson, people want to go for a pint with him, people want to see him do well. But he has to tell us what it is he thinks. If Keir Starmer is Captain hindsight, then it’s starting to look like Boris Johnson should be called General Indecision.