Johnson’s back, and this time his message is: all aboard for the sunlit downlands | Marina Hyde
The UK is on course to have the continent’s worst death toll – but don’t expect this prime minister to be a gloomster
How maddening to learn the Nigerian president has appointed a dead man to run a government agency. This is what happens when you’re in a global procurement race for resources. If the UK had only acted quicker, that guy could have chaired our public inquiry into the handling of the coronavirus. Of course, we already boast an estimated 45,000 of what our insanely euphemistic government might describe as “resources”, in the form of those who have … gone to a better place, is it? Been selected for immortality? Ascended to virus Valhalla?
Either way, it’s great to see the government ramping up the positivity, now that returning prime minister Boris Johnson has replaced broken Pez dispenser Dominic Raab. Judging by the prime minister’s Thursday press conference, you’ll hear a lot more emphasis on the fact that the NHS has not been overwhelmed, and a lot less emphasis on those of our loved ones who may have … been overwhelmed. The UK is on course to have the worst continental death toll, which you should expect the government to characterise as winning the Euros. The one thing it’s hard to understand is the supposed crisis in fruit- and veg-picking, given how many people have recently gone to live on a farm.