Andrew Tettenborn

A Covid amnesty won’t save Boris Johnson now

Boris Johnosn (Photo: Parliament / Jessica Taylor)

Timing is everything in politics. Partygate showed the usually sure-footed Boris at his most careless and inept, dwarfing even his run-in with the Commissioner for Standards that cost him North Shropshire last month and (one suspects) helped lose him Bury South on Wednesday. But the British electorate can be very forgiving. When it elected Boris it did not mind too much about his tendency to get things wrong on points of detail, seeing him instead as the man who saw what had to be done, was honest about it and got on with the important part of the job.

At the time the scandal broke about the ‘drinks cabinet’ at No. 10, Boris could have taken advantage of this. Imagine if he had quickly admitted to having taken his finger off the pulse and let down the voters. Suppose further that he had asked their pardon, said it would never happen again, and added that of course it was only fair that there should be an amnesty for all lockdown offences in 2020.

Of course the opposition would have crowed and made a great deal of noise, but its style would have been handsomely cramped. Piling onto someone who has profusely apologised makes you look churlish; and if he’s already offered reparation you can’t very well make political capital by demanding he supply it. It’s worth remembering that electors are always more willing to accept that people make mistakes than opposition politicians are prepared to credit. At least when it comes to public opinion, Solomon’s advice in Proverbs remains good: if you are decent to your enemy you will heap burning coals on his head and come in for a reward later.

An immediate offer to make good the harm done by remitting all fines for lockdown breaches would have been disarming

Will tactics like this work now? Calls

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