How Boris Johnson has lost public’s trust over lockdown – Andrew Vine

There’s a solidarity to be found in that, which will hopefully be some comfort to the people who find not just their everyday lives restricted, but quite possibly a new threat to their livelihoods emerging as an unintended consequence.

But there are serious questions to be asked about how scrupulously observed new restrictions will be, especially if the Prime Minister announces today that the series of local lockdowns are to be extended nationwide.

That’s because public patience is wearing thin with the Government’s over-promising and under-delivering on measures to control Covid-19. I’m losing count of the number of people who are effectively saying: “To hell with this. We need to get on with our lives.”

And these aren’t people who are remotely irresponsible or couldn’t care less about the welfare of others. They’re friends, neighbours and acquaintances – some employees, others who run their own businesses and a few who are retired, in good health and sick of being officially characterised as so frail they must hide themselves away.

They’re intelligent and have made their own minds up. They take on board yesterday’s dire warnings by the Government’s chief scientific officers that trouble is on the way, and they’ll be careful.

But independently of each other, all have reached the same conclusion – they’re so heartily sick of the Government’s flip-flopping that they are relying on their own good sense to decide what’s best for themselves and those they love.

So they’re going to get back to as much like normal as possible and take a chance. The overwhelming likelihood is that they won’t catch Covid anyway, and if they do, it won’t kill them, even if they break the rules and gather in groups of more than six.

There are those who will disapprove of this, but my hunch is that many more are moving towards the same viewpoint that if they are sensible, they’ll be fine. A credibility gap has opened up between public and Government, the inevitable consequence of indecision, U-turns and failing to deliver on pledges.

A public that did all that was asked of it during months of lockdown – in many cases at huge financial and emotional cost – had every expectation that the Government used that time and the summer downturn in infections to prepare for the predicted autumn upsurge.

In particular the public had the absolute right to expect that a test-and-trace system vaunted as “world-beating” would be in place as schools and workplaces reopened. Instead, we have rationing of tests and a system that isn’t anywhere near capable of coping with the demands on it.

Go get tested if you’re worried or suspect you might have caught Covid, proclaimed the Prime Minister and an advertising campaign. So people tried to, only to be told that tests aren’t available.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, we then had the preposterous spectacle of the Government’s testing supremo, Baroness Harding, somehow keeping a straight face while telling MPs that the upsurge in demand for tests was unexpected. The assertion that a rise in possible cases was unexpected is beyond parody.

Then for the Leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, to urge people to stop carping about a lack of testing was so tone-deaf that it underlined why the Conservatives shut him away during the general election campaign lest he opened his mouth and displayed how absurdly out of touch he is with everyday life.

It isn’t carping to point out the woeful failings in the way that the Government is handling this pandemic. On the contrary, it is essential that facts are faced and ministers are held to account.

Disquiet amongst Conservative MPs is a measure of the lack of direction and drift. Their constituents know this is an almighty mess and expect their MPs to do something about it.

The public is no longer willing to be fobbed off with assurances that effective measures are just around the corner, when they know that their jobs may not last that long.

Little wonder so many people are making their own minds up about weighing the risks of coronavirus against the necessity of getting back to normality, whether that is earning a living or spending time with loved ones without counting the number of people coming through the door.

If the Government is to take the public with it in new measures against the virus, it has to start delivering. Otherwise, people will simply ignore what is said and go their own way. And who can blame them?