Patrick Christys: Those around Boris Johnson thought the rules they made us live under were laughable

I don’t care that Boris Johnson may have had a party in Downing Street. I don’t care that it may not have been socially distanced. I don’t care that, potentially, Covid rules were broken. I don’t really think they should have been in place to begin with.

What I do care about is the fact that people died alone in hospital beds, unable to hold their loved one’s hand in their final moments.

I do care that people weren’t allowed to hug their mum at their father’s funeral.

I do care that people had to cancel their weddings.

I do care about record NHS waiting lists, I do care about children missing out on education, I do care about children developing crippling mental health issues, I do care about a weakened economy and the fact that my future children will still be paying for that in higher taxes.

And this is the problem isn’t it? Boris Johnson was the man inflicting all of that on us. He says he was following the science, but ultimately it’s his name above the door.

Now, I’m not calling for him to go, but I find it very difficult to see how he can stay, especially in light of yesterday’s announcement and the fact that, unequivocally, the government is no longer following the science.

The ‘Plan B’ restrictions include people being told to work from home in England from Monday, if possible.

Face masks will be made compulsory in most public indoor venues including in cinemas and theatres from this Friday. They will not be required in pubs, restaurants and gyms.

Vaccine passports will be compulsory to gain access to nightclubs and other large venues where large crowds gather.

This will apply to all unseated indoor venues with more than 500 people, unseated outdoor venues with more than 4,000 people and any venue with more than 10,000 people.

Two vaccine doses will be treated as fully-vaccinated but this will be kept under review because of the booster programme. I think it’s pretty obvious that we’re going to end up constantly moving the goalposts on what the definition of fully vaccinated is – I can see a future where people who haven’t had their 25th jab are stigmatised and vilified and told that they’re killing people with their selfish behaviour.

Thos who come into contact with someone who tests positive for Omicron will have to take a test every day.

Economists are warning that this could cost our economy £4bn-a-month.

But most concerning, he raised the potential that vaccines could become mandatory. And we just can’t have that. This has all started in Europe, and this country has. Risen up in the past and defeated dangerous authoritarianism from the continent. We can’t succumb to it now.

All for a strain of the virus that is spreading rapidly, but from a very low base, that as yet hasn’t killed anyone, doesn’t appear to be dangerously resistant to the vaccine and that appears to have mild symptoms.

Like I said, I don’t really care about Boris’ alleged party, but I do think that it means he now has zero credibility when it comes to asking us to follow additional restrictions.

Why should any of us adhere to Boris Johnson’s increased restrictions when it’s clear that those around him, those close to him, during the middle of our winter of discontent, thought the rules they made us all live under were laughable?