29 scathing reactions to the government’s drastic u-turn on Christmas plans
Just three days after berating Keir Starmer for wanting to “cancel Christmas”, Boris Johnson appeared on TV to deliver the bad news that he was cancelling Christmas, for London and the South East, at least.
For everyone else, he was just ruining it.
Boris Johnson right now pic.twitter.com/u97jH3iiSS
— Bethany Black ️⚧️ twitch.tv/beffernieblack (@BeffernieBlack) December 19, 2020
In response to a fast-moving variant of Covid-19, prevalent in SE England, the five-day relaxation of rules has been slashed to include just Christmas Day, while the SE won’t even have that, as it enters Tier 4 – which is lockdown in all but name.
My official Xmas card this year shows me wrecking everyone's Christmas Day#Tier4 #Covid19UK pic.twitter.com/392wN3onXo
— Parody Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson_MP) December 19, 2020
Wales went into lockdown more than a week ahead of schedule, while Scotland closed its border to the rest of the UK. Northern Ireland will lock down on Boxing Day, as planned.
Having confirmed the five-day Covid amnesty just days earler, the PM was forced to claim that the science had changed, although he wasn’t backed up on that by *checks notes* the scientists, who have been warning the government that mingling households would be a fatal error – literally.
To be fair, he couldn't possibly have predicted the thing every scientist, and Keir Starmer, and everyone who looked at the figures and everyone in the medical profession predicted.
— Mark Steel (@mrmarksteel) December 19, 2020
The science:
*stays exactly the fucking same*
UK Government:
“You’ve changed, man.”
— ️ Mary ChristMax ️ (@SpillerOfTea) December 19, 2020
Although many agreed the strict rules were necessary, the chopping and changing and last-minute nature of the decision came in for the most stinging criticism.
Reactions, on and off social media, contained a mixture of anger, relief and scorn. Here are the best we saw on Twitter.
1.
How long will it be before we discover that Johnson was told to lockdown again a week ago, but ignored the advice?#DailyCovidUpdate
— I Am Incorrigible FCA (@ImIncorrigible) December 19, 2020
2.
I feel like the ‘new variant’ is doing a lot of the heavy lifting for yet more poor decisions and leadership here
— Liam Thorp (@LiamThorpECHO) December 19, 2020
3.
Don’t blame this on a new strain.
Scientists warned months ago there’d be a winter spike. Even a dick like me knew it’d be worse than spring.
This is the fault of a PM who wanted to have saved Christmas, and ended up fucking it in the head. pic.twitter.com/SBSAhqsTXc
— fleetstreetfox (@fleetstreetfox) December 19, 2020
4.
So how many members of the Cabinet will flee London and break the Xmas Tier 4 lockdown rules? My bet: all of them including the PM.
— John Sweeney (@johnsweeneyroar) December 19, 2020
5.
gonna schedule this tweet to send every weekend now pic.twitter.com/ktffNjwDec
— Abby Tomlinson (@twcuddleston) December 19, 2020
6.
TIER 4 PEOPLE: Worried that you might miss your opportunity to take part in a super spreader event and kill dozens of elderly people? Don’t worry. There are always church services.
— Michael Moran (@TheMichaelMoran) December 19, 2020
7.
It's almost like the Christmas amnesty was reckless political jockeying, innit?
— Sam Whyte (@SamWhyte) December 19, 2020
8.
“What did people tell you not to do?”
“Relax the rules over the Christmas period”
“What have you done instead?”
“Fucked up Christmas for everyone at the last minute” pic.twitter.com/g1u41fZJqk— Amanda (@Pandamoanimum) December 19, 2020
9.
"We've relaxed the rules over Christmas by mistake" #covidbriefing pic.twitter.com/PFVYSNScVe
— t h u m b s (@Thumbsuk) December 19, 2020
10.
"Step it up to Tier 4" pic.twitter.com/tbP9sIklQn
— Bec Hill (@bechillcomedian) December 19, 2020
11.
Cancelling Xmas 6 days before Xmas because you couldn’t face the pain of cancelling Xmas 10 days before Xmas.
— Duncan Weldon (@DuncanWeldon) December 19, 2020
12.
This new strain sounds terrible, good job schools in the south east where it's at its worst weren't forced to carry on with onsite learning* til (checks notes) yesterday.
*My son watched Christmas films & did a fun quiz in The Rona Pen
— No Cheeses For Us Meeces (@Scriblit) December 19, 2020
13.
Johnson bingo:
1) “You know how much I hate to do something like this” (sic)
2) “Folks”
3) Horrifically inappropriate metaphor probably with smirk.— Mark Gatiss (@Markgatiss) December 19, 2020
14.
“Its my duty to take difficult decisions” says the idiot who avoids taking any decisions until the biggest possible mess has been created and then works out which outcome suits him best #dailybriefing
— dave ❄️ (@davemacladd) December 19, 2020
15.
Worrying about Spotting a new
rolling back the virus strain
Christmas plan to blame pic.twitter.com/26uKdkkmi8— Vonny Laing-LeClerc (@vonny_bravo) December 19, 2020