Boris Johnson tries to look forward - but Covid is still here
- Published
Boris Johnson may have "had enough" of the Covid pandemic.
He probably spoke for millions of people when he said that at the lectern, looking out at the non-existent crowd to the virtual audience on the other side of the lens.
But while we all may choose to loathe the impact of the disease on our lives, the pandemic is far from done with us yet.
Although the current situation is about as far from standard as anything in recent history, his conference speech was, well, rather standard.
It was a familiar Johnson cocktail: the kind of gags you might hear during an after-dinner speech, and the political message we have heard from him already on several big set-piece occasions.
Namely, that the government was fighting a war against this disease but it will be vanquished, and he will lead the country to a happier peace.
The speech was not short of ambition - including promises on everything from green jobs, to education, productivity, housing, even to planting trees.
It was though short on detail of how the country will make it to his "New Jerusalem", and how his promises would actually be made to happen.
Does that matter?
While conference speeches are often a big shop window for leaders to talk to the country, it felt today that the prime minister didn't really take that opportunity.
Instead, perhaps to try to calm activists' nerves, he pointed out that he was uncomfortable with the expansion of the state to deal with Covid-19, still a believer in traditional Tory values, and even claimed it was "seditious" to suggest that he had lost some of his normal mojo.
Familiar repartee
He may have claimed this suggestion had been put around by his political opponents. In fact, it is a concern that has been shared privately by some of his supporters and colleagues.
For many years, Boris Johnson was the darling of the Tory conference, packing sweaty fringe meetings and the main hall.
His fans who flocked to see him could only dream he would win the party a victory of the scale they achieved at last year's general election.
Activists may have been cheered by some of his familiar repartee today, and heartened by big promises for the future.
But he is no longer just the party's star turn, but a prime minister grappling with what it means to govern, struggling to keep control of a crisis that has a long way to run.
Trying to look forward to a world where the pandemic has disappeared doesn't make it go away.
- Published8 October 2020
- Published2 October 2020
