If the last 18 months have taught us anything, it’s that a successful COVID-19 policy requires three things: high levels of public trust, a coherent strategy and effective implementation. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government is in danger of squandering all of them.
Just as the U.K. parliament is preparing to disband for the summer recess — a time when intrigue and plotting tend to replace open debate — the government has made two back-to-back U-turns, with more likely to come.
It took only a few hours on Sunday for Downing Street to walk back the decision for Johnson and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak to skip self-isolation after crossing paths with someone who tested positive for COVID-19 (Health Secretary Sajid Javid). That kind of exceptionalism wasn’t going to go down well with the half-million or so Brits stuck at home after being pinged by the NHS contact-tracing app.