james2001 wrote: Wed 08 Dec, 2021 11.41
Talk of introducing full on Plan B restrictions now... clearly to distract from the party debacle rather than because of public health reasons.
Not sure how they expect the public to abide by any new restrictions when the news headlines are full of the government's inability to follow the rules they set themselves. Bringing in Plan B is surely only going to make the situation and public anger worse.
Only yesterday, the government were saying no need for plan B, don't cancel parties etc., it's blatantly obvious what they're doing.
It is obviously politically motivated to try and get away from partygate. The problem is the constant posturing of the opposition is always to oppose by wanting more rather than less restrictions and it has left them in a place where even in this debacle Johnson does still have a card to play which the opposition have handed to him. The SNP government in Scotland already has plan B-like measures, as does the Labour government in Wales. The Westminster Labour MPs were screaming for plan B in October, and again when Omicron was discovered. If Johnson now does plan B, what possible reason do they have not to support it regardless of why it is being done? It's what they asked for. And you can bet if they call out Johnson for doing this for political rather than health reasons, their previous (and indeed, very recent) support for plan B will be thrown straight back at them.
As it is, we're again going to be in a position when the opposition to the government is the same government's back benches, it will still be a huge matter of conscience to vote against their own party which few will ultimately go through with. And even if there is a large rebellion, it is still unlikely to be large enough to overturn the majority, particularly when to date Labour may have abstained on occasion but they have never voted against any restrictions. So plan B is a done deal if Johnson wants it and it probably will deliver him out of this mess due to the opposition's failure to remember what they are there for.
If we had an effective opposition which represented the other side of the coin then we may not be in this mess, but we don't.
The only hope is that letters have started to be sent to the 1922 and Johnson will at some point be removed (I think Sunak is already on manoeuvres in that department with his public commitment to tax cuts weeks after announcing tax increases), but I don't see that before the middle of next year when it will be judged to be a more favourable time for someone else to take over, and also with the hope that Johnson will by then be in more pickles that make a confidence vote more likely to be lost. Even then, the new administration would still need to be committed to not pursuing any more restrictions, which is a very big if indeed.
