Boris Johnson’s lockdown is a hideous prospect for liberal Britain – but it’s necessary to save THOUSANDS of lives

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.

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.

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.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s idiotic and rash decision to close part of the Tube led to jam-packed carriages on those which ran yesterday.

Chorus of fools

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.

God bless Madonna too for calling coronavirus “the great equaliser” from the rose-petalled bath at her mansion.

Imagine how much grimmer life would look without these ridiculous creatures.

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