All the Tory elation about an 80-seat majority is dwindling following a cluster of unforeseen events.
London: Beginning with Coronavirus, that has led to fears of the worst economic decline ever for the UK, according to the OECD the British economy is braced for an 11.5% contraction in 2020. The number of deaths in UK (at the time of writing 41,279) give rise to accusations that the government bungled the management of the corona crises.
This is assisted by former Chief Scientific Adviser Sir David King and two SAGE scientists, Prof John Edmunds and Prof Neil Ferguson, all saying UK should have locked down earlier and this would have saved many more lives, even halved the death rate.
Due to the pandemic cancer referrals are down, treatments and surgery have been postponed and there are fears that nearly 2.5 million are in the NHS backlog.
The public find the government’s regulations perplexing and thousands seem unable to adhere to them. Boris Johnson got Covid-19, his fiancé had a baby, the Dominic Cummings debacle gave the left a leverage that will not go away.
Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people are thought to be disproportionately affected by Covid-19, the report investigating this will be published this week.
And then George Floyd was killed by a policeman and UK’s multicultural society exploded.
And to top it all the Brexit extension expiry date is at the end of June.
David Frost, Brexit Negotiator, and Michael Gove, Minister for the Cabinet Office, both claim that under no circumstances will Britain agree to extend the transition period, while Michel Barnier EU’s Negotiator has changed EU’s tune to favouring an extension as opposed to just offering one.
A High Level meeting between Johnson and President of EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen, Barnier and President of EU Parliament David Sassoli will take place by video conference on Monday 15th.
The UK and the EU have also agreed an intensified timetable for EU FTA negotiations in July; FTA negotiations with US and Japan are already underway.