Boris staggers from disaster to disaster

“COMETH the hour; Cometh the man.”

This old saying has a long and chequered history.

That history does not look as if it is going to be added to anytime soon as our bumbling Prime Minister staggers from one calamity to another.

His shocking failure to act swiftly in March led to countless thousands of unnecessary deaths.

His failure to provide sufficient PPE put swathes of our dedicated public servants in danger and his ludicrous claims to be developing a worldbeating test, track and trace system would be funny if it was not so absolutely serious.

This is compounded by his refusal to give the responsibility and resources for tracking and tracing to local , experienced professionals while the national system run by one of his pals lurches from one failure to another.

Now it is clear that, rather than give the nation the leadership it needs to tackle the frightening rise in cases in Covid’s second wave, we see a man being dictated to by populism and fear.

Instead of taking firm action, the PM is prevaricating.

He cannot explain his actions in a way which stands up to scrutiny.

He fails to answer direct questions either in parliament or to the press and he clearly has no strategy other than to pass the buck from scientists to local leaders and on to the public when all else fails.

In the past Boris Johnson was able to get away with a smile and a pun as the canny lad stuck on a zip wire - but that will not cut the mustard as our nation faces the biggest crisis in generations.

DAVE ANDERSON, Middleton

in-Teesdale, County Durham.