Christmas cancelled for UK, Johnson

Things couldn’t feel less festive in Britain right now. There’s a new — apparently homegrown — virus mutation, rising Covid case numbers, the cancellation of Christmas gatherings, and stalled Brexit talks. Now Europe has put the UK into isolation, closing borders because of worries about the new Covid strain.
It isn’t just Christmas travellers who face disruption. Some 10,000 large trucks a day make the trip between France’s Calais and Dover, the UK’s biggest port for roll-on, roll-off ferries. The latter accounts for 17% of the British goods trade; 119 billion pounds ($158 billion) of goods passed through the port in 2015. There’s a risk of highways to Dover becoming car parks if the border remains shut.
France says it will try to put measures in place to get freight moving again, given that viruses aren’t usually transmitted by truck. But the disruption provides an early taste of what awaits if Britain leaves the European Union without a trade deal on December 31.
For many Brexiters, that’s a feature, not a bug.
“This mutant virus has come at a time which allows us to sort of hide our lack of preparation and leave without a deal,” Ben Habib, a former Brexit Party member of the European Parliament, told Talk Radio. Such views are shared by some in the ruling Conservative Party, making it harder for Johnson to strike a trade-deal compromise.
The situation on Britain’s borders is clearly serious, but will it wound Johnson fatally? That all depends on how many Britons are inclined to blame the virus for the chaos — especially if the EU-UK trade talks collapse — and how many will
point a finger at their prime minister.
While Johnson didn’t cause the virus, he seems unable to project a sense of being in control of the response. It’s never clear whether scientists, pollsters or his own rowdy backbenchers are guiding policy.
The plan, announced in November, to allow up to three households to mix over Christmas was always reckless. Case numbers weren’t falling as rapidly as the government hoped in parts of the country.
Johnson might have told the public he would make a better assessment closer to the holidays. But as evidence mounted that the virus was out of control again in some places and that England couldn’t afford a Christmas relaxation, he initially doubled down. A number of his members of Parliament pushed back against lockdown restrictions. Some suggested his position as party leader would be in question should he cancel Christmas. Johnson heeded that warning. In Parliament last week, he said it would be “inhuman” to change his plans. “Have yourself a merry little Christmas,” he quipped.
He’d performed another spectacular U-turn. London and swaths of the country have now been placed in a new “Tier 4” of restrictions: Shops, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres are closed.

—Bloomberg