Quite the constitutional twist, yesterday. Just as what Walter Bagehot called the efficient side of our ruling set-up was merrily announcing a final bonfire of the Covid regulations, the dignified side (aka her Majesty the Queen) was letting it be known that she has contracted Covid. Not what you’d call perfect timing.
Taking the wide view, she’s just one elderly lady. Policy shouldn’t hinge on the susceptibility of any single elderly lady to a disease, be she never so dignified. Still, if her Maj is carted off to hospital it’ll be bad PR for Number 10s ballsy new Living With Covid policy.
She’s a visible reminder that, yes, it’s still out there, burning through the population like a peat fire. I don’t raise it because I think it’s any sort of indication, in itself, that the removal of Covid restrictions is a mistake. My argument here is not of the bellowing headline, clarion-call type, I’m afraid; but rather of the cautious ‘what if’ variety…
Abolishing free LFTs – though it might look like an easy win with the anti-state brigade – seems counterproductive
Absolute certainty – certainty of the blowhard sort that folds Covid policy into another arm of the culture wars – is to be mistrusted in this discussion.
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