THE OBSERVER: As public trust falls, No 10 insists on dictating a national response to coronavirus; local leaders believe that they can do better
When he addressed the nation on 23 March to announce a national lockdown, Boris Johnson knew he had most of the British people with him. “Each and every one of us is now obliged to join together to halt the spread of this disease,” the prime minister said in his TV broadcast. “We will beat the coronavirus and we will beat it together.”
Six and a half months on, as he prepares to announce the introduction of more restrictions and a new three-tier system across the country – at what ministers say is a “critical” moment – hospitals are filling up and death rates are rising once more.
Unlike March, however, calls for the British people to unite behind a response directed from No 10 no longer command the attention or respect they did then. The many changes in rules and regulations have left people confused and choosing to rely on their own instincts as much as on what politicians tell them. » | Toby Helm, Political editor | Sunday, October 11, 2020
