Histories of the present. 5 years ago this weekend, Boris Johnson’s absences & 40,000 extra COVID deaths
I posted the below five years ago this weekend (Saturday 29th February 2020).
Covid was already spreading in the UK. It was a further two weeks on Monday 16th March 2020 that Johnson advised people to avoid non-essential contact. One week later on Monday 23rd March 2020 a full scale lockdown was implemented. No vaccine was available for Covid in 2020.
Writing in the Guardian (1st March 2025) Stephen Reicher argues that if a lockdown had been implemented on Monday 9th March 40,000 deaths from COVID might have been avoided.
Johnson however was elsewhere it seems
29th February 2020
Boris Johnson has been criticised by Jeremy Corbyn for being a ‘part-time’ Prime Minister and he has been notable by his complete absence as floods have caused misery for communities around the UK and look set to do so again this weekend.
Katy Balls, who works for the Spectator as written in The Guardian(28.2) that this is a deliberate Tory strategy involving Johnson ignoring the media. Ms Balls might do well to ask around at the Spectator for what Johnson was like when he edited the magazine.
A summary is below and it appears to suggest a pattern of behaviour…
He would habitually not answer his phone, commission articles, turn up to lunches, or meet dignitaries, important advertisers or even his own deadlines.
Johnson as Editor of the Spectator (Sonia Purnell, Just Boris 2012)
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