Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Israeli media: Israeli Prime Minister's Office: The security cabinet has approved Netanyahu's proposal on Gaza.
Al Mayadeen correspondent: The Lebanese Council of Ministers approved the general objectives of the US paper unanimously by the ministers who remained in the session.
Hezbollah, Amal Movement ministers withdraw from the Lebanese cabinet session as it discusses the proposal of US envoy Tom Barrack.
Al Mayadeen correspondent: An Israeli drone bombed a car in the town of Kfardan in the Baalbek district.
Al Mayadeen’s correspondent: An Israeli raid targeted the outskirts of the town of al-Qatrani, Jezzine District
Al Mayadeen’s correspondent: Israeli warplanes launch a raid targeting the vicinity of the Burguz area
Al Mayadeen’s correspondent in southern Lebanon: An Israeli airstrike targeted the outskirts of Jbaa in the Iqlim al-Tuffah region
Al Mayadeen’s correspondent in southern Lebanon: An Israeli airstrike targeted the outskirts of the town of Ansar
Al Mayadeen's correspondent in southern Lebanon: Israeli warplanes launched a series of airstrikes on the al-Mahmoudiyah area
New York Times: Trump plans to meet with Putin as soon as next week

News from Nowhere: Panniversary

  • Alex Roberts Alex Roberts
  • Source: Al Mayadeen English
  • 20 Mar 2023 13:29
5 Min Read

Three years ago, overnight, everything suddenly changed. Yet today, in the UK, in the pettifogging politics of a ruling party still dominated by morally myopic Little Englanders, nothing much seems to have changed at all.

  • x
  • Johnson messed around with multiple lockdowns in a misguided bid to save Christmas rather than to save lives. The eventual emergence of a deadlier new strain of Covid in the southeast of England might have seemed almost inevitable.
    Johnson messed around with multiple lockdowns in a misguided bid to save Christmas rather than to save lives. The eventual emergence of a deadlier new strain of Covid in the southeast of England might have seemed almost inevitable.

It’s now been three years since the United Kingdom first went into Covid-19 lockdown. Yes, this week Britain marks the pandemic’s third anniversary, or “panniversary” if you like.

Much has been said of the British government's failure to take this public health emergency seriously in its early stages. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, with characteristically foolhardy optimism, had ignored medical advice and travelled around the country unmasked and shaking hands. He’d kept the borders open and had resisted the imposition of lockdown restrictions until the virus had spread widely across the population.

He’d generally done his best to underplay the risks and shirk his own responsibilities. This was after all his administration’s house style. It was Brexit all over again.

He went on to mess around with multiple lockdowns in a misguided bid to save Christmas rather than to save lives. Under such circumstances, the eventual emergence of a deadlier new strain of Covid in the southeast of England might have seemed almost inevitable.

It later of course transpired that Mr. Johnson had wasted billions of pounds of public money awarding contracts for useless procurements to his government’s friends: from protective equipment that didn’t protect to software systems that no one used. Fraud was rife.

Taxpayers’ cash was thrown around in an unprecedented spending free-for-all. Even the former landlord of the Health Secretary’s local pub got a piece of the action.

It of course also eventually emerged that while the rest of the nation had been adhering strictly to the rules introduced to preserve the health of the population, the Prime Minister and his cronies had been partying away in Downing Street like it was the end of the world.

Even his own severe brush with Covid failed to dampen his ebullience or bring him to his senses. Indeed, it appears that by surviving his time in intensive care, he came to think of himself as somehow immortal, both physically and politically.

The fact that Johnson’s near-death experience proved neither redemptive nor revelatory reflects in microcosm the failure of the hopes of those who’d believed something better might have emerged from the ruins of a society traumatized by a domestic catastrophe of a magnitude unknown in living memory.

Related News

News from Nowhere: Five Years

News from Nowhere: Corona Nation

Now, in 2023, we may feel some nostalgia for the naïve utopian faith of those who’d dreamed that the pandemic would prove a panacea for the inequities and inequalities of the nation and indeed of the world.

But was it really so crazy to imagine that the shared experience of this global disaster might have been enough to reaffirm our common humanity and inspire us to put aside our differences and conflicts, and strive to come together in a spirit of transnational community?

Instead, of course, it turned out that the increased economic pressures which followed the height of the crisis served only to reinforce the short-term self-interest of struggling states.

Rather than, say, uniting us in the face of the next great disaster, the climate emergency, it has entrenched individual governments in their narrow agendas, and made it look even less likely that we’re going to get out of that one alive.

Earlier this month, the unauthorised publication of many thousands of his WhatsApp messages revealed that Boris Johnson’s Health Secretary had failed to follow scientific advice recommending a general programme of Covid-19 testing for all people about to be admitted into care homes.

Nearly forty thousand Covid deaths were registered in English care homes in the first year of the pandemic alone. It is now believed that many of those deaths might have been avoided.

That Health Secretary had himself been obliged to resign in 2021 after it was reported that he had pursued a romantic relationship with a colleague in breach of both his marriage vows and his own pandemic safety rules.

Further leaked texts have charted acrimonious arguments and personality clashes at the heart of government, chaotic decision-making processes and crippling indecision, political concerns trumping medical evidence, the premier’s failure to understand basic mathematics, and even a case of one senior minister receiving special access for his family to virus testing kits at a time when they were in very limited supply.

A public inquiry into the UK government’s handling of the crisis is due to open in June. But, as the BBC’s political editor has pointed out, the hearings have already opened in the court of public opinion.

The Metro newspaper has declared that Covid victims’ families have been “sickened” by these messages. The Daily Mirror has said they’ve exposed a “tragic betrayal”. The Leader of His Majesty’s Opposition has described them as revealing the “ghoulish spectacle” of government failings.

Three years ago, overnight, everything suddenly changed. Yet today, in the UK, in the pettifogging politics of a ruling party still dominated by morally myopic Little Englanders, nothing much seems to have changed at all.

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Al Mayadeen’s editorial stance.
  • COVID-19
  • Covid lockdown
  • Prime Minister Boris Johnson
  • Boris Johnson
  • Pandemic
  • UK
  • United Kingdom
Alex Roberts

Alex Roberts

Journalist, author, and academic.

Most Read

All
Given ample indications Epstein was collating sexual blackmail material on powerful figures for intelligence agencies, comments made by Mirage's cofounder to Ynet take on a chilling character. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)

Zionist spies innovate AI sexual blackmail tech

  • Analysis
  • 27 Jul 2025
Georges Ibrahim Abdallah: Lebanon’s lion roars the truth

Georges Ibrahim Abdallah: Lebanon’s lion roars the truth

  • Opinion
  • 31 Jul 2025
What is the current state of Resistance forces, after the Al-Aqsa Flood operation, the collapse of independent Syria and the ongoing attacks on Lebanon and Iran? (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab el-Hajj)

Regional Resistance after the Gaza Genocide

  • Analysis
  • 25 Jul 2025
The whistleblower’s testimony indicates they were surprised the FBI expressed “high confidence” in the 2017 ICA. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab el-Hajj)

Whistleblower exposes real 2016 US election meddling

  • Opinion
  • 5 Aug 2025

Coverage

All
War on Iran

More from this writer

All
News from Nowhere: O My America!

News from Nowhere: O My America!

News from Nowhere: Going nowhere not so fast

News from Nowhere: Going nowhere not so fast

News from Nowhere: The French Connection

News from Nowhere: The French Connection

News from Nowhere: You Turn If You Want To

News from Nowhere: You Turn If You Want To

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS