Boris Johnson’s lockdown is a hideous prospect for liberal Britain – but it’s necessary to save THOUSANDS of lives
The Sun
A grim remedy
THE lockdown Boris Johnson has ordered is a hideous prospect for any nation, but especially a liberal democracy like ours. But The Sun accepts it could save many thousands of lives.
We are facing the gravest threat since the spectre of Nazi invasion in 1940. It calls for unprecedented temporary restrictions on our freedom.
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Boris Johnson has made the bold decision to lock down the nation in a bid to battle deadly coronavirusCredit: Sky News
We pray that it works in reducing the spread of Covid-19, though we are unlikely to know for at least a fortnight.
There are early signs it has worked in Italy where daily death rates are falling.
Ours, too, have not soared in the past few days as dramatically as were predicted. But the worst is doubtless yet to come.
It is clear that “social distancing” alone will not suffice while so many selfishly refuse to take seriously the virus or the Prime Minister’s advice.
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In London commuters disregarded Government advice of social distancing and packed on to tube trainsCredit: @biggeoffwhu
Boris had to turn that into a legally enforceable order — though in our view it has been too long coming.
The Sun has largely backed the Downing Street response so far.
It has seemed wrong to obsessively pick holes in the strategy of a new majority Government suddenly engulfed by the biggest global crisis since World War Two.
But there is a shambolic “on the hoof” feel to it now, to which no one can turn a blind eye.
Boris has been too slow to react, too reluctant to think the unthinkable, too afraid to take the draconian action other world leaders did.
He has rightly deferred to his experts on health and science. But their advice has shifted and seemed contradictory.
And Boris’s faith in the public doing the right thing was misplaced.
The negligence of a minority may already have cost lives and helped cripple the NHS.
Last Friday the PM finally shut down schools, pubs, restaurants and leisure facilities only to find crowds of fools flocking to parks, tourist spots, beaches and shops, spreading disease further.
Some passengers were key workers. Others will have been the self-employed with little choice but to travel in. Others may have been compelled to work by unthinking employers.
The lockdown will be gruelling for us all. But we must minimise the virus’s spread, the loss of life and give the NHS its best chance of continuing to function.
We must hope it’s not too late to prevent our losses soaring to hundreds a day.
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IMAGINING “no possessions”, as John Lennon did, has become easier of late.
But God bless A-list celebs for reminding us, with their inexplicable version of the hippy “classic”, that they are the least likely people ever to suffer such a fate.
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God bless Madonna for calling coronavirus 'the great equaliser' from the rose-petalled bath at her mansionCredit: instagram.com/madonna
