There are dangers in setting coronavirus policy while appeasing Conservative backbench rebels

Editorial: The government should stop concentrating on stunts to placate its party and focus on curbing the virus

Johnson will be back in the House of Commons in person this week (Reuters)

The way the government is going about drawing up the rules to suppress coronavirus seems to be a case study in the problem of distorted democracy. In the run-up to the vote in the House of Commons on Tuesday about the new tiered system that will replace the England-wide lockdown on Wednesday, all MPs’ votes are equal – but some are more equal than others. 

The prime minister’s business managers are most worried about Conservative backbenchers – especially those who have voted against the government before. This means the most powerful voices in deciding the final shape of the regulations are those of MPs who tend to represent rural constituencies with a low incidence of the virus, and those who are ideologically opposed to restrictions on liberty. 

That means the government is coming up with gimmicks such as proposing possible “escape routes” from tier three restrictions for villages so that they can be “decoupled” from nearby cities. And, overall, it risks setting restrictions too loosely at a regional or national level.