As soon as the emphasis shifts from surviving the pandemic to reviving the economy, he will become a key figure.
The questions are posed with a ponderousness that recalls Polonius as his most sententious: too much evidence, too little wit.
“We’re making sure the Act works better for some of the most vulnerable in our society and gives them more of a legal right in deciding [their] treatment.”
Given the current situation with Coronavirus, it’s likely that restrictions will be tightened. There’s only so much room to extend them, though.
This minimalist manoeuvre, carried out in graveyard news time, suggests that a bigger reshuffle has been postponed until the other side of the year.
Dale’s new volume of brief lives of all 55 Prime Ministers since 1721 brings only some of them to life.
Johnson behaved like a boisterous middle-aged games master in baggy shorts who constantly assures us that we are almost at the winning post.
The Prime Minister says the new measures are on the statute book until March to allow for a phased and orderly easing of restrictions later.
The Province must be included in Johnson’s mission to make Westminster a positive and pro-active force in every part of the country.
Government sometimes treats the constraints fatalistically, rather than seeing them as a problem that prices, incentives, and regulations could affect.
The sense that he hates the whole business is helping to carry him through it – for all the mistakes that have been made.
But vaccination doesn’t give instant protection; pressure on the NHS won’t lift immediately – and delivery may run late. So restrictions will take longer to lift.
“I really do believe that we are entering the last phase of the struggle…For now, I am afraid, you must once again stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives.”
“It may be that we need to do things in the next few weeks that will be tougher in many parts of the country,” he says.
He says there is “no doubt in my mind that schools are safe”, and describes school closures as “exceptional”.