I, like many people in the UK, am not a fan of government imposed lockdowns as a means of pandemic control, but I do recognise that they can help with slowing down the spread new waves of covid-19, and for me personally I don't mind them as i don't like going out much into crowded spaces anyway!
However, even if imposing future lockdowns were to be a rational means of controlling future variants of covid-19, the UK is now less likely to go into lockdown mode because of the previous double-standard of Boris Johnson and is number 10 staff themselves breaching their own lockdown rules back in December 2020 and again in May 2021.
The fact that Boris Johnson has resided over two known events in which he and his staff breached the very lock down rules which they themselves imposed on the country effectively means he now has no moral authority to impose further lockdowns.
Imagine if another wave of severe lockdowns were now imposed in the UK....
More people would be more inclined to ignore said lockdown rules - for various reasons....
- It's clear now that this new wave of the virus isn't as deadly, so rationally and morally it's not as a big a deal to ignore the rules
- People are tired of restrictions.
- The double standards thing would also kick int - some people would ignore lockdown rules because the people imposing the rules ignored them previously,
But of course policing lockdowns isn't down to the government, that's down to, well, the police, and it would be their job to impose penalties such as fines on anyone who might hold a party (or a 'gathering'?) during any future lockdown.
All it would take would be for a few people to get fined and that would be a constant news stream - I mean let's face it the media is on the look-out for such stories, and anyone fined for breaching any future lockdown would be well within their rights to vent about any fine they received.
So if we do end up in another lockdown situation, there is almost certainly going to be a constant narrative of the 'government's double standards' for as long as that lockdown lasts......
So if a lockdown is needed, we are now less likely to get one for political reasons.
It seems to me that Boris Johnson's days as PM are numbered, as it's so obviously clear that his ability to govern effectively during a Pandemic has been severely compromised.
What a mess.