PM must scorn all appeals for a new national lockdown

TAKING a “middle of the road” approach often gets politicians a bad name. Some people find it far more comfortable to deal in absolutes. And indeed many political problems do resolve themselves better if gone at from a fundamental or principled stance.

- Patrick O'Flynn

The Falkland Islands would not have been regained in a half-hearted war, and we saw what happened when Theresa May tried to create a compromise approach to Brexit.

No wonder Margaret Thatcher used to joke that people in the middle of the road get run over.

However, when you think of it, that’s rather illogical – people wandering directly into one or other carriageway are even more likely to be hit.

Some problems cannot be defined or addressed by absolutes. Where the Falklands were either sovereign British territory or not and Britain can no more have a little bit of Brexit than a woman can be a little bit pregnant, the same binary approach does not work when facing an issue like coronavirus.

Every action in fighting this disease has multiple consequences, some unintended. A 10pm curfew, as has been mooted, might lead more people to go out drinking earlier or encourage them to drink faster, leading to more drunken breaches of distancing rules.

A PROPOSED two-week lockdown to “short-circuit” the current rise in infections may just delay a second wave until winter, when the NHS will be less able to cope. It’s complicated.