It’s one thing to endure them to prevent people dying, and for a relatively short period of time; quite another because we might return to this situation.
It’s safe to say the UK will have saved tens of thousands of additional lives relative to going at the EU-4’s pace over the coming months.
As Johnson put it yesterday: “we can’t think of this just as a project for us and us alone”.
The terrible choices the Government has had to make are a paradox of the UK’s success as an international travel hub.
The agreement involves revising an international border – opposed in this case by the EU and the UK. It will have knock-on effects elsewhere.
The Scottish leader has always tried to temper expectations about the country’s fight with Covid. This could pay off in an independence referendum.
Correcting a deficiency could halve the infection rates in vulnerable groups – and more than halve the death rate for those who get infected.
Those advocating such an option must be clear that this extraordinary human cost is something that they are willing to have others pay.
If he is to take the necessary steps to get a Brexit deal (and I hope he does), he is going to have to defy those instincts on a second issue, too.
If we follow Spain and France, and test and trace doesn’t improve, the mood on the Tory backbenches is likely to shift towards a Sweden-style solution.
He implies that Covid Marshalls shouldn’t have police powers, and says Tory members are “more developed in their thinking” on housing than Tory MPs.
The Government’s approach has been modelled on the country, even though its cases have continued to rise.
The latest data on cases and death rates across the continent.
People strongly back it banning separate households meeting indoors where infection rates have risen, among other moves.
The detection of spikes is, paradoxically, a consequence of the country’s improved testing regime.