This lockdown is better late than never, but it would have been even better in September

Editorial: Johnson should have listened to his advisers – an earlier shutdown would have been shorter

Boris Johnson said the country had ‘to be humble in the face of nature’ (AFP/Getty)

Boris Johnson took a great risk in September, when the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) urged him to consider greater restrictions, including a temporary lockdown. The prime minister decided against it, which was a difficult decision, taken for the best of reasons. He and the chancellor wanted to protect jobs as much as possible, and thought it was more important to keep the economy going. 

It turns out that this was a mistake, which has left the country not exactly with the worst of both worlds, but certainly with a bad public health outcome as well as a bad outcome for jobs. Not least because the lockdown will now last longer than it could have done if it had been introduced earlier. 

The prime minister compounded his error by decrying Sir Keir Starmer as an opportunist when the Labour leader took up the idea of a short circuit-breaker lockdown, after the Sage minutes were published a month later. Mr Johnson has now handed Sir Keir nothing short of total moral victory. No more “Captain Hindsight”.