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It's almost as if the virus is working for Johnson. Brexit and Covid are merging. There is no way of keeping the stories separate. Sensible discussion is going to be impossible.
Queues and shortages are now identified with Covid, not Brexit and Tory propagandists will do all they can to ensure it stays that way. And it will work when you have a mendacious government intent on confusing the issue, a juvenile media and an anarchic, infantile social media.
As to Covid, it's not going down the way I anticipated. I had envisaged a strategic climbdown from lockdowns once a vaccination arrived but the vaccination programme has almost ground to a halt. This will be the next big scandal.
We are not going to see vaccination have any impact on the epidemic for many months - if at all, especially if the immunity is transient. The only way this works is with a big hit over a short period and even then I have deep misgivings.
All the while, as I understand it, whatever was working in Sweden (assuming it was working), is now not working, and now it's starting to look like a long term situation that could lead to a very serious global depression.
This, though, is not the most troubling part. Ms Priti Patel declared "The government has consistently this year been ahead of the curve in terms of proactive decisions on coronavirus". In the bubble and they've convinced themselves they're doing a good job.
None of the criticism has any impact on them at all. It doesn't make any difference how bad it gets. They believe they are doing brilliantly. That's the most dangerous aspect of all this.
If government can continue to evade responsibility and continue to enjoy stable polling, then there is no feedback mechanism and the situation will continue to deteriorate. They won't even be able to admit when things are worsening thus will see no need for corrective action.
This has been the case for some time now, with government having completely insulated itself from any outside influence. I don't know exactly how bad this is going to get. The tailbacks at Dover are only the tip of the iceberg.
They are the most visible manifestation of our departure from the single market but with a number of important markets almost inextricably linked to the EU we could see a cascade meltdown of regulatory and administrative systems affecting all arms of government.
If we then see ever more people left high and dry while goods dry up and services freeze, civil unrest becomes a distinct possibility.
This could very easily be the case since a sense of complacency has been with us for a while with most expecting lockdown easements in the new year, and a somewhat naïve expectation that we can shrug off Brexit with relative ease.
At present the chances of a deal are fifty-fifty but as far as a number of industries are concerned, it makes little difference either way. We are likely to see a massive wave of job losses and furlough will soon become a tentative experiment in Universal Basic Income.
As to politics, it's about to get far uglier than we have seen even in the immediate referendum aftermath. UK-EU relations will be at an all time low, while out political parties are unable to unify or bring any remedy to anything.
There is also no indication that the media will be any less useless or the public any less addicted to trivia. But at least we'll have plenty of fish, I suppose. For a short while anyway.
