That was risky. The PM came to the House for today’s session with nothing at all in his briefing folder. Not a fact. Not a statistic. Not a single detail to rebuff his opponents. Usually he tosses out figures in all directions to create the impression of authority and control. Today he had nothing more than a little speech of thanks for Pfizer’s Covid jab which has just got the OK from the regulatory boffins.
‘I would like to thank all those who have made this possible,’ he said, like a tearful starlet clutching a Golden Globe.
Sir Keir Starmer echoed his delight. ‘Fantastic news,’ he gushed. Then he treated the House to some mental arithmetic. There are 800,000 jabs ready to go, he said, and each patient needs a double dose. So it follows that 400,000 people can be vaccinated immediately. MPs were so stunned by his computational wizardry that they missed the thrust of the question.
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