Don't Expect Boris Johnson to Be the Same Prime Minister
The British leader's brush with Covid-19 is bound to have altered his thinking. A gamble on lifting the lockdown is much less likely now.
A deeper appreciation.
Photographer: WPA Pool/Getty Images EuropeIn his absence, Boris Johnson’s British government has mainly followed the lockdown strategy that was determined before the prime minister was infected with Covid-19. Many are hoping that he will soon return to work and change course; that he’ll celebrate signs of a flattening infection curve and reopen Britain for business. It’s unlikely to work out that way.
It’s true that you almost expect Johnson to bound up to the cameras and change the narrative. His modus operandi throughout his career has been Tiggerish enthusiasm. The politician who banished the “gloomsters and doomsters” on Brexit and championed the three-word campaign slogan (“Take Back Control” and “Get Brexit Done”) might well have been expected, before his illness struck, to make “Lift the Lockdown” his mantra.