from
Michael Neudecker, London
Sajid Javid could have sat here now and talked about how he, the Minister of Health, and his colleagues in the British government, managed to do it all wonderfully. Sure, the Omicron thing isn’t pretty, but Javid could have referred to the vaccination program and the fact that exactly a year ago a British woman became the first person to get a corona vaccination. Instead, the BBC breakfast television director switched to an empty studio on Wednesday morning. “Sajid Javid – or another member of the government would be sitting on this couch,” said the moderator. It has become the custom in Britain for a minister to attend a media round every morning, but now, “Nothing to see or hear from them,” as one BBC reporter put it out in the darkness of Downing Street. An empty studio is worth a thousand ministers sometimes.