Therese Raphael, Columnist

Boris Johnson’s U-Turn on Lockdown Buys Him Little Time

The U.K. prime minister joined a list of other governments in announcing a national lockdown to contain the coronavirus. It’s a near impossible situation.

November 2, 2020 at 8:33 AM UTC

By Therese Raphael

Therese Raphael is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion covering health care and British politics. Previously, she was editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe.

Let's try this again.
Photographer: David Cliff/NurPhoto

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Here we go again. On Saturday, Boris Johnson abandoned his policy of whack-a-mole and joined a growing list of other governments in announcing a national lockdown to contain the coronavirus.

Politically, it’s a near impossible situation. Johnson is accused from one side of having acted too late and from another of having gone too far. The public want to know whether a four-week lockdown is going to turn into a four-month one, and at what cost — and this he can’t reliably answer.