British prime minister's call for 'common sense' in fighting coronavirus falls flat
British historian Frank Carlyle has made a life’s work of trying to make sense of the past. But now it’s the present that’s confounding him.
Most notably, the 55-year-old prime minister jettisoned the government’s main previous talking point — “Stay home” — in favor of a new slogan: “Stay alert.” In his address Sunday, Johnson said people who cannot work from home should be actively encouraged to return to work, but said staying home was best when possible. He encouraged people to walk or bicycle to work, but also gave his blessing to commuting on public transportation, urging staggered start times and adhering to social distancing practices.Face coverings in certain settings were recommended, but not obligatory.
That day, commuters posted images showing crowding on some buses and subway cars on the London Underground, known as the Tube. One Twitter user in the seaside city of Blackpool memorably described her 7 a.m. journey as a “covid party bus,” adding: “I’ve never felt so unsafe!”“I’m here to try to make sure that everybody understands as best as possible what we’re trying to achieve,” he said in a television interview Tuesday. “I think we were quite clear.
Some experts on public health messaging called the prime minister’s speech, and his subsequent parliamentary appearance, a missed opportunity. Til Wykes, a professor of clinical psychology and rehabilitation at King’s College London, said the new slogan’s only real virtue was its brevity.Johnson’s address was followed up the next day with a 50-page government document detailing the next phase of the fight against the coronavirus, but few were inclined to plow through that degree of detail.
Rather than being hailed as a unifying force, the new rules triggered fresh divisiveness in a country already polarized by nearly four years of
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