While Boris Johnson smirks and equivocates, another 1,500 deaths are announced

The prime minister sat almost entirely alone in one of Westminster’s grand committee rooms, facing his biannual interrogation by the heads of all of the parliamentary select committees over video link. 

The occasion had a kind of Les Miserables “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” vibe, particularly when, about halfway through, it was announced elsewhere that 1,564 people had died of Covid-19 the day before.

If Boris Johnson has achieved one thing since becoming prime minister a mere 18 months ago, it is to devastate the expectations that once went with his job.

No one, for example, absolutely no one, expects the prime minister to be asked a question, of any kind, on any subject, and for him to then answer it. And this occasion was absolutely no exception.

Yesterday was very nearly the seventh consecutive day in which more people have died from Covid-19 and more people have become infected with it than have occurred in South Korea in an entire year. There are many understandable reasons for that. But it’s still the case that arriving in South Korea from abroad involves a highly complex and highly austere system of checks and quarantine measures, and has done so since almost the very start of the pandemic.

The UK, meanwhile, has its own rampant new strain of Covid-19, as does South Africa, as does Brazil. Yvette Cooper asked the prime minister why it is that it is still perfectly legal to fly from South Africa or Brazil to the UK, via Dubai or Istanbul or Paris or Rome, face no checks at all, get on public transport and travel to wherever in the country you might choose to be going.

These questions were faced down with a shrug and a smirk. New restrictions are coming in on Friday. There will be other “new measures” but Johnson was unable to say what they were.

The restrictions that will be brought in on Friday, other European countries brought in in November. We, on the other hand, apparently must have a “balanced” approach to travel, given the economy. That the UK economy has taken the largest hit of any developed nation is just a mere detail.

Things are worse here than anywhere else, but they have to be. That’s just how it is. And the answer is to just sort of say that they’re not, to waft it all away, and things will get better.

It’s all waffle. It’s all noise. It’s all garbage. But this is what we’re used to. A complete, never-ending rolling s***show, and we’ve all just come to accept it.

The “Boris virus” is out of control. National immunity is entirely worn down. None of it matters. No one cares.

Even the questions drew forth the trademark gentle smirk. It took me a while to recall exactly what it was that the whole grim occasion had reminded me of.

Eight years ago, I happened to be at a fairly notorious GQ Men of the Year awards ceremony, at which Johnson won the prize for “politician of the year” and used his speech to make a low-rent joke about Ed Miliband’s political flimflammery, entirely unbothered that the subject matter of the gag was gassed Syrian children.

It didn’t matter. It was all pure politics. There were points to be scored. Debates to be won. Japes to be had.

Earlier in the day, at prime minister’s questions, the prime minister had genuinely sought to score a point on Keir Starmer by telling him that Marcus Rashford had done a better job than he had in holding the government to account.

That was his line of attack. The actual prime minister, telling the leader of the opposition that his own government was so useless it had been taken apart in the spare time of a 23-year-old footballer, and so Mr Starmer should really up his game.

This is where we are. Everything crumbles. Johnson smirks. Thousands upon thousands of people die. Nothing matters. It’ll all blow over.