Thanks to late action and mixed messaging the government is losing its grip over the Covid-19 regulations

Will all the fudging we have seen in recent days, writes Janet Street-Porter, is it any wonder confidence in our leaders is falling?

(EPA)

As the death toll passes 40,000, have we reached emotional meltdown? New research by King’s College London shows that the number who are passively abiding by (and agreeing with) lockdown is about the same as those who feel it is being eased too fast, but a growing number (one in four) are utterly frustrated, concerned about finances, jobs and mental health.

I’m in that category: angry and powerless, losing control of my destiny.

Meanwhile, a large number of the young seem to be doing whatever they please (chances of dying from Covid-19, about 1 in 280,000 if you’re under 25), but an increasing number of their parents, older people and anyone living alone has had enough of being cooped up and treated like children.

In the past week alone, we’ve seen an astonishing amount of fudging by the people who claim they have our safety at heart. No wonder confidence in our leaders is plummeting. This is government by U-turn, a government that couldn’t even organise a voting system for the House of Commons without making itself a laughing stock.

In the latest change of policy, face masks will now be mandatory from 15 June on public transport – but why not in shops and other confined spaces? And why not start next Monday? Quarantine – once rejected – is being imposed on Monday weeks after other countries are re-opening their borders. Air bridges with countries who are exiting from the pandemic may or may not happen in time to book a summer holiday, who knows? And someone’s proposing an extra bank holiday in October – as if that’s going to make any difference to our state of mind.

The wartime analogies Boris Johnson loves only resonate if there’s a specific battle to be won, a turning point to be reached and a grasp of tactics informing each step along the way. Covid-19 could be with us for years – there’s no end in sight, no handy vaccine or magic bullet. We are in the hands of a bunch of Dad’s Army recruits let by Captain Mainwaring.

Johnson told us that our test and trace system would be “world-beating” by 1 June but now the chief operating officer for the scheme, Tony Prestedge – a realist (not a blatherer like the chief executive, Dido Harding, who failed miserably at a Commons health Committee hearing this week, refusing to give any figures) – says that the system won’t be at full speed until September or even October. Even the chief medical officer Chris Whitty says it will be “quite some time” before it’s working at full capacity. Another “Big Idea” that’s been actioned too late.

Face masks might be of limited use, but why not enforce them from the moment people were first allowed to return to work? The British Medical Association was calling for them to be worn from mid April. And now we see the streets full of demonstrators (many not wearing masks) supporting the Black Lives Matter campaign – and I don’t see police enforcing social distancing, because they’re job is to protect property and prevent any destructive behaviour. They’ve mostly given up their unpaid extra work implementing Covid-rules, and who can blame them?

Now the weather has turned sour, restrictions are harder to bear. Confinement can’t be eased by BBC programmes entreating us to send in our favourite records or sing songs. It can’t be eased by watching drama series in which a serial killer abducts a granny and leaves her to die in the snow as in Cardinal on BBC2 last Wednesday.

Confinement can’t be eased by clapping, or crying on social media because you impersonated black people on your well-paid TV series years and years ago and have finally come to your senses (Leigh Francis). Our emotions are getting shot to pieces – but because this damage is not visible, it’s not getting any attention.

Children are returning to school, but what about their parents and grandparents? Yes, an 80-year-old is 500 times more likely to die than a 20-year-old, but the time has come to allow older people to make their own risk assessment, to decide what quality of life they want for their remaining years, and accept it might not be the safest option. It’s time for trade-offs.

Is it not better to allow older people to visit friends and relatives and go inside for short periods wearing masks – or are they supposed to sit in the garden in drizzle? Why can’t relatives visit their families in care homes every day, if they have tested Covid-free? Why can’t people go to their second homes and stay the night if these properties have been empty for weeks on end?

In truth, none of these new “rules” about barbecues and visits from outsiders can ever be enforced. Rules only work if there’s an element of fear, of being caught out and punished if you disobey. Face masks will have to be monitored by transport police (with the threat of fines for non-compliance), and as for 14-day mandatory self-isolation for all arrivals to the UK from Monday, there is no way any law enforcement agency has the resources to check each one continuously for 14 days per person.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, funding cuts to the police and local authorities had already impacted every aspect of public services. The chancellor’s Covid-19 handouts do not return these services to an acceptable level.

The probation service was already finding it impossible to support young offenders, our social services were so over-stretched they couldn’t keep track of every vulnerable child. Domestic abuse victims were being failed because shelters had been shut (even though the government tossed a paltry couple of million in their direction) and the police have long complained they haven’t enough people to do their mandated job of law enforcement rather than implementing ill thought out social engineering. So where are the rule-enforcers for the never-ending blizzard of Covid regulations? What is our impetus to fall into line?

Many middle-class families who can afford foreign trips will look at the quarantine regulations and take a chance – if there’s a fine, so be it.

Each set of directives is wishful thinking, by a government clutching at straws. Forty-thousand deaths and no end in sight.