The juggernaut rolls on

 

Emily Maitlis and Newsnight returned for another year last night, and it was business as usual.

They went with the familiar Newsnight approach of 'gotcha-ing' the Government, and doing so from the familiar BBC 'Why didn't they lockdown, sooner, tougher, longer?' angle.

Here's how Emily began:

Boris Johnson: From this evening, I must give the British people are very simple instruction. You must stay at home. I'm afraid you must once again stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives.  

Did we ever think, back in March, we'd be hearing it all over again today? A brand new year, a brand new lockdown. Yesterday, we were promised schools were safe, today they are shut. They won't reopen until late February. What do we know now we didn't know in December? 

Emily then mounted her soapbox and gave the nation a 'alternative prime ministerial speech' in that all-knowing, self-important style that she's quite obviously nicked from high-profile 'liberal' US commenter-presenters like Rachel Maddow. 

Having had a swipe at the Government in that introduction, she then sort-of-credited Boris for "spelling it out" after his belated "recognition" that his previous limited measures "have not worked". (Boris evidently seeing the light of Emily's superior wisdom). She then gave her authoritative take on why "the numbers are stark enough to explain the why" of the new lockdown:

Good evening. To all those who welcomed in 2021 with a renewed sense of optimism and cheer, we salute you and we want you to cling on to that feeling. Because, tonight, it will feel we are moving backwards in time, not forward, to another stay-at-home lockdown and the closure of more of our schools. This is a recognition that the measures of the last few weeks - the tier system, the cancelling of Christmas, the forbidden foreign travel - have not worked. And, this evening, the Prime Minister spelled it out. To those thinking the disease peaked last March, it didn't. Covid hospital admissions in England are now at a 40% increase on then. There's been a 30% rise in just one week. The numbers are stark enough to explain the why. But here's the how. The rules start from now and stretch until mid-February. Parliament will vote on the new laws tomorrow. Tonight, we get first reaction to the Prime Minister's announcement and ask if this means we have run out of options for controlling the disease with anything less than total shutdown. 

 More asking, less telling us what to think would be welcome.