Council lockdown powers are just another way for Boris Johnson to pass the blame when things go wrong

Johnson’s government is not alone in trying to deflect blame and weasel its way out of taking responsibility for anything. It has just taken the game to new levels of absurdity

We’re going to be hearing a lot about local lockdowns in the weeks and months to come. Leicester’s will not be the last imposed with the aim of keeping a cluster of Covid-19 contained. If they prove effective, such targeted actions are obviously better than the nationwide snooze we’ve been living through since the end of March.

With this in mind, something unusual has happened. Local councils have been handed new powers. They will be able to close some premises, shut down outdoor spaces, cancel events if the virus starts to rage in their localities.

Sharing power with anyone is a highly unusual occurrence under Boris Johnson and his puppet master Dominic Cummings.

Their fondness for the idea of ruling by decree is well known. Their high handed treatment of the devolved administrations may yet blow up the United Kingdom. The sinister plans in the Tory manifesto to torch even the limited checks and balances that exist to restrain them under Britain’s creaking constitution are there for all to see in black and white.

But if BoZo the clown and his malevolent Svengali have seen a light on the road to Damascus, that’s a welcome development, right? After all, councils know their localities a lot better than Whitehall does. Britain would surely work better if the UK government recognised that, instead of constantly trying to rule by centralised diktat – because Leeds has very different challenges, and requirements, to Ludlow. One size does not fit all.

So in theory, yes this is a sensible idea. In practice? It’s hard not to look at it without a heavy dose of cynicism given the way the shabby lot we have in government have been carrying on to date.

Let me explain. Johnson’s government is not alone in trying to deflect blame and weasel its way out of taking responsibility for anything. It has just taken the game to new levels of absurdity.

Nothing is the government’s fault. Everything is down to someone else’s foul up, whether that’s a quango (created to take tough decisions ministers want to avoid taking themselves), the EU (which they’re still going to find a way to blame for anything they can), or local councils.

Giving the latter new powers also gives them new responsibilities while opening up the opportunity for the government to land the liability for anything that goes wrong on the steps of the town hall.

Cluster in Tolford? Yes it’s terrible, I know. But we gave the council the powers to shut stuff down and they didn’t do it. I suggest you contact them if you’ve got any questions.

Business gone kaput in locked down Lamworth? I think you should ask them about why they jumped the gun and shut the place down before they needed to. We know. It’s a mess. But local councils, eh, what can you do? Next time we’ll keep things in Whitehall!

The government is still retaining the power to jump in and impose lockdowns off its own bat if it feels the need, if Tadford’s refusal to act is because council leader Harry Fellows was around Oxford when Johnson and the other Bullingdon boys were raising hell, knows the way he operates – and understands what a political trap looks like.

Otherwise, here lies a marvellous opportunity for Johnson and co to shirk responsibility for the sort of failings that have seen a 20-point poll lead go up in smoke because 45,000 Britons have died from Covid-19 and maybe half of them could have been saved.

And if it’s a Labour council on the wrong side of a row? Well that’s just gravy.