To the consternation of many of my friends, I have no personal dislike of Boris Johnson.
I first met him a long time ago, worked with him at The Daily Telegraph (when it was mostly a very good newspaper, whatever its politics) and was greeted heartily and by name on bumping into him twice when he was Mayor of London.
He's an excellent writer - his book on Winston Churchill may be flawed but is a great read - and, as you'd expect from someone born in New York, schooled in Brussels and having a little Turkish ancestry, he is an internationalist (indeed a European).
But, of course, it all went wrong; the fierce ambition Boris possesses turned him into a flag-of-convenience Brexiter. He even claimed he'd 'Got Brexit Done' until the famous oven-ready deal turned out to be an illusion if not an outright lie to add to all others told by truth-challenged Leavers.
My own politics, left of centre with more time for Keir Starmer than Jeremy Corbyn without trashing the latter, are naturally some way distant from Boris's. And I think he is a wretched prime minister who considers economy with the truth to be just part of the trade.
His handling of the imposition of quarantine on people arriving from France has been a nightmare. He said he'd be 'ruthless' but not that this translated as being perfectly content to inflict horrendous inconvenience and possible loss of jobs, along with alarming disruption to plans for the new school term, with the least possible notice - all made infinitely worse by a crass ministerial gaffe.
Grant Shapps, the transport secretary in a government packed with incompetents, told Sky News the 4am Saturday deadline meant the quarantine would affect people arriving from Sunday. He tried to paper over the cracks and correct his idiotic statement but the damage was done. Among the army of Brits in France - I saw figures of up to 500,000 but imagine these include the many expats with no need or indeed wish to return - a fair number appear to have taken him at his word and either booked for some later time on Saturday or kept to such bookings already made.
The impact on people's lives is incalculable. People who had clung to the dream of a decent holiday, perhaps already paid for, even when their future employment was to say the least unsure, and whose children had to be prepared for school, understandably panicked. There was easy-to-predict chaos at air, sea and rail crossing points. Many paid exorbitant prices to get home; many more will have failed to make it in time. My daughter and granddaughter (see photo above) dodged this absurd measure by paying to bring forward their flight from Nice.
The sick man of Europe - with a record on Covid-19 worse than any EU country - was lecturing its nearest neighbour on rising numbers of cases there and inflicting draconian restrictions at the drop of a hat. Mass testing at ports of entry, with follow-up tests over the ensuing two weeks if necessary, would have been a fairer and more efficient response to concerns about the infection rate in France; instead, people not using their own transport are required to take buses, trains or taxis - spreading any germs as they go - before then, and only then, having to self-isolate. And many would be French, returning to the unwelcoming country they have made their home and enriched.
If ever a government measure immediately affecting tens, scores, maybe hundreds of thousands of people has ever been implemented with greater stupidity and lack of decency, I'd like to hear of it. But then, I have a good idea of how it came about. Please read on; it won't take long ...
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