AS Scotland’s First Minister remains wisely cautious amid the rising clamour (primarily orchestrated by right-wing Tories previously “Brexiteers”) for an immediate return to “normal”, the Prime Minister again bows to populism in deceitfully pronouncing the importance of data over dates yet specifying set calendar numbers for the removal of lockdown restrictions.

In proclaiming that his government has “learned lessons” while persisting with a “suppression strategy” (instead of an “elimination strategy” as pursued by the Scottish Government) and embarking on a course of actions likely to spawn another UK variant – possibly even more pernicious than the London-Kent variant that has taken most lives in the UK in this devastating second wave of Covid-19 – Boris Johnson is not only demonstrating his duplicity but his recklessness.

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The UK may be leading the world in genomic sequencing, but as evidenced by the highest death rate per capita in the world no number of euphorically announced vaccination milestones can hide the scandalous incompetence of this Prime Minister and his chosen Cabinet ministers.

Stan Grodynski
Longniddry, East Lothian