What does this mean?

POLITICS

Perilous moment for Johnson. Tory benches are bleak for him, angry over the u-turn, the communication the lot.

The autumn lockdown is imbued with politics in a way the spring was not. Both in that Johnson and the government are held... https://twitter.com/lewis_goodall/status/1322611533327773698
...responsible for policy failures in a way which wasn’t true in the spring. There is also deviation between the two main front benches in a way there wasn’t before. Starmer will now claim that whatever happens, his plan would have been successful...
...and so would PM’s if he’d moved earlier. We’ll never know but politically, it’ll likely be a powerful argument.

PM will also have to have clearer lines about why he was deriding the ideas he’s now espousing only a week ago.

It’s very delicate.
SCIENCE

Others are better placed than I am to talk about all this but think it’s fair to say that wasn’t Whitty or Vallance’s finest hour. The data was complicated and (as some scientists are saying) in places did not always present an especially compelling case.
THE PLAN

We still fundamentally don’t know what the plan out of this is, if a vaccine doesn’t come. What happens when we lift lockdown and infections start to rise. Can test and trace work this time? They haven’t in the major countries of Europe either? If not, what then?
BREXIT

With England locked down, the government and state has to finish negotiations and one way or the other prepare the whole UK and it’s businesses for a new political and economic settlement with our largest trading partner. It would be a tough ask in the best of times...
...in these it’s Herculean for all involved.

If a Biden victory comes along with this lockdown, I’d say the chances of a deal (already strong) become firmer still. Don’t forget even an FTA will be a huge jolt for many biz with little time to prep.We used to call it a hard Brexit
THE ECONOMY

Likely devastation for retail in the crucial Christmas period. Travel too. Furlough extended but only for another month as things stand. But many redundancies already baked in as due to end today. Charities facing charity shop closures likely to struggle even more.
THE UNION

Don’t forget- this is all just for England. Striking reminder that at this moment of peril that the PM’s writ reaches no further. Feels more and more fragile as the crisis progresses and our ramshackle constitutional arrangements...
...which usually pass much of the by population by, are revealed and the sense of a united British lived experiences, arguably already weak, diminishes further.
Now off to enjoy a restaurant for the last time in who knows how long.
You can follow @lewis_goodall.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled:

By continuing to use the site, you are consenting to the use of cookies as explained in our Cookie Policy to improve your experience.