The Tories will blame coronavirus for all the ills of Brexit

A woman at Green Park station on the London Underground tube network wearing a protective facemask. Photograph: Kirsty O'Connor/PA Wire. - Credit: PA

Some readers are taking a cynical approach to the coronavirus and how the fear will be used by the government.

How timely is this coronavirus for our Brexit government? For the next two years they can blame it for all the economic problems caused by Brexit.

Of course after that, they will have to find some other reason things are going wrong. A bad deal from the EU, a bad deal from the USA, immigrants, the whole world hating Britain?

Believe me, they will not blame it on the adverse effects of Britain leaving the European Union.

Roy Watson





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Shoreham By Sea

Boris Johnson’s passive inactivity when confronted by crises like the ongoing floods and the coronavirus pandemic is extremely worrying (“These strange times mean Johnson can resist the floodwaters of outrage”, TNE #184).

If someone wants the title of prime minister, surely there are responsibilities that come with the job? Cowering in a bunker does not cut it. Or does he expecting his father to stand in for him, as Stanley volunteered to do when Boris chickened out of an election broadcast?

The baby story, which deflects attention from yet another crisis, at the Home Office, is typical. Distract from a problem, instead of dealing with it!

Pete Milory

Is it any coincidence that Carrie Symonds’ Instagram message revealing her pregnancy appeared just hours after Sir Philip Rutnam’s shocking announcement that he was going to sue the government over his “constructive dismissal” from his Home Office senior position?

It makes you wonder, is her partner possibly trying to compete with Covid-19 for media attention? Because, try as he may, he’ll never beat a virus for proliferation.

Rebecca Brown

When I wrote to TNE weeks ago about the discrepancy between our reaction to the potential threat of the new flu and the obvious and proven premature deaths from, for example, air pollution (30k-40k per year in the UK) I had no idea that things would progress the way they have. I don’t mean the virus but the panic.

How easy it was to ignore Ebola when it was just Africans dying? Now it’s Westerners and we are in meltdown despite a fatality rate of between 1-2%. Ebola has had fatality rates of up to 90%.

What we need to learn from Covid-19 is just how unprepared we are for the health challenges that are coming.

Amanda Baker

Saughton Gardens