Dani Garavelli: Boris has risen but don’t bank on an Easter miracle

Understandable media concern for Boris Johnson’s wellbeing has tended to let his ministers, including Matt Hancock, off the hook. Picture: Leon Neal/Getty

The Prime Minister’s recuperation and the #StayAtHome message have diverted the nation from holding its leaders to account, writes Dani Garavelli

Don’t know about you, but the burning question on my lips as the bodies piled up last week was: “How is the Prime Minister spending his convalescence?” Luckily, I didn’t have to wait too long to find out. Unluckily, the answer was not ruminating on the error of his ways. Or vowing to atone for past mistakes. According to the many journalists who had been so briefed, Boris Johnson did not mark Good Friday with an examination of his conscience. Rather he whiled away his time watching rom coms and doing sudokus.

Almost 1,000 deaths in a day. Seven times the number of lives lost at Aberfan; ten times the number of lives lost at Hillsborough. Those disasters which cast dark shadows over our childhoods are themselves being overshadowed by the virus now marauding through the wasted UK, plundering our gold.

Yes, I agree the language of the battlefield is best avoided. But that is how this whole crisis has been framed. And when you stop to think about it, it is apt to the point of heart-breaking. Frontline troops let down by officers who see the old and the frail as expendable. What is the concept of “herd immunity” if not a war of attrition in which a large number of casualties is tolerated in order to achieve a goal? Same as it ever was: lions led by donkeys.

How it shocked those at the top to realise even generals could be felled. And yet, what an opportunity it provided: an excuse to rally the nation behind the dear leader; an excuse to put tough questions aside. And so, as new hospitals were conjured up out of nowhere, we were told now, NOW is the time to take this thing seriously. As hundreds mourned loved ones who passed away without public acknowledgment, we were forced to listen to a running commentary on one man’s recovery. He’s sitting up, he’s engaging with staff, he’s watching Love Actually. Johnson is a precious resource. Just like the PPE Matt Hancock says medical staff should be using sparingly. The Prime Minister’s cheerleaders even tried to sully our one great expression of communal gratitude – that weekly socially distant coming together when neighbourhoods echo to the sound of applause. Wish Boris well: fair enough. But clap for Boris? Gie us peace.

This whole disgusting exercise reached its apotheosis in the Sun’s front page as Johnson left hospital. Boris is Out (Now that really is a Good Friday). A Good Friday. The day when our daily death toll soared (as the Sun would have it) higher than Italy’s or Spain’s. When those countries reached their daily peaks (971 and 950 respectively), we stared aghast at images of hazmat suits and overcrowded hospital wards and ice rinks turned into morgues. But now we are in the same place, what are we being fed? Relatable tales of how Carrie Symonds cheered Johnson up with pictures of their baby scan.

The Guardian did better. It carried the faces of some of the dead in a spread that looked like it might have been published the week after 9/11. But alongside the keening we need the questioning. Why did the government squander the two-week advantage the UK had over China, Italy and Spain? Why were mass gatherings, including the 250,000-strong Cheltenham Festival, allowed to continue? Why do some social care workers still not have the PPE they need to protect themselves and others? Why did we not immediately engage in mass testing – like Germany and South Korea – and, given we are still not hitting 20,000 tests a day, is there any realistic prospect of hitting the target of 100,000 tests a day by the end of the month?