Madness

On the day the UK reached nearly 60,000 new infections and has an R rate (remember that?) of in excess of 5, the Government passed the new COVID regulations, but only with the support of the opposition.

101 Conservatie MPs defied the three line whip and voted against it.

The Whips earlier had believed the rebellion had died out, but they got that quite wrong.

What happens now?

Well, there is a by-election in Shropshire tomorrow, and a Conservative hold would take the crisis down a notch or two, a defeat would be a disaster. The leader who was elected because he won elections is now the party's biggest liability, as we call all see his clothes are just bluster.

The question is now do the backbenchers push for change now, sending in letters of no support to the Chairman of the 1922 Committee, or do they treat this as a shot across the bows?

But all of this is playing party politics, internal party politics, with Public Health, as the scrapping of the "red list" countries, meaning people arriving no longer have to quarantine, because Omicron is already here and partying like it's 1918.

Late last night, another photograph emerged of another party, this time of CCHQ staff last year, 18 of them, posing during a party that was quite clearly against the law and guidance at the time. Only one paper covered that story this morning, this was at a time when we couldn't meet anyone outside of our family or support bubble, and most followed this because we believed the Government and cared about others.

Those making the guidance ignored or thought the same laws and guidance didn't apply to them.

Johnson's speech on Sunday about vaccinations pushed the party story off the new agenda, possibly as intended, but there is great anger out in the country, and tomorrow we will find out how angry Shropshire is when they come to vote.