In a functioning state today should be decision day on harder lockdowns and school closures. Both the figures and the anecdotal evidence from medics saying SE England hospitals reaching capacity and staff reaching limits of resilience BEFORE the effects of Xmas relaxation seen 1/

2/ But this is a sociopathic government: no empathy, self-aggrandising claims, continual lying and manipulation, narcissism... https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2020/12/tories-aim-get-through-pandemic-blaming-public

3/ The decisions need to be taken sooner, not later. Schools and families need to plan; if the Nightingale shut-down has a logic, it needs to be explained. And there's no urgency in the public health comms...

4/ January looks like it will be dreadful: the mix of cases is changing (ignore the eugenics clickbait brigade - every life is worth saving!)...

5/ All crisis managers know time has two effects: you become better prepared but also capacity and resilience are degraded... eg hospital oxygen pipe systems reaching limits because of better treatment...

6/ All citizens ask of a government is that it honours the Hobbesian contract to keep them safe from chaos. Every day of dither and buck-passing by Tory ministers breaches this pact...

7/ One reason the Tories keep dithering is that every decisive action makes their indecisive prior actions look weak. Again, evidence of sociopathic attitudes at the centre of power... https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2020/12/tories-aim-get-through-pandemic-blaming-public

8/ January's health crisis deserves its true appellation the #JohnsonWave