London, United Kingdom – The shortage of Christmas in the UK is amid fears of a new series of the novel coronavirus, continuing uncertainty over Brexit and the government’s ban on festivals to prevent further infections.
Summarizing gloomy sentiment, national newspapers this week covered their front pages with warnings that the UK was “Europe’s sick man” and named the chaos in late December as “Stupid hell”.
“The country is just scary but angry, and that’s a dangerous mix,” Saurav Dutt, a 38-year-old London author, told Al Jazeera. “With Brexit, there is a clear sense that people do not know what is going on.
“And yes [also] extreme harassment at the grim, unsupervised, often infamous and reactive government position in dealing with the pandemic. “
Several countries have closed their borders to UK travelers due to global fears over the rise of the new virus, leaving more than 1,500 lorries in the south-east of the country, unable to travel. into France and the European Union, and encourage warnings from supermarkets about the future. food shortages.
According to Sainsbury’s, the UK’s leading supermarket, lettuce may well run out – a warning that has sparked another round of panic buying.
A ban on global travel and the sighting of lorries loaded with European goods piled on UK roads “only adds to the sense of separation” that many feel ahead of the impending upheaval. come with the largest trading partner and nearest neighbor, Dutt said.
“The anger will only make Britons unable to travel,” he said.
When Christmas was postponed, “it’s going to the end of the year, and it ‘s not bothering well for 2021,” he said.
But some Britons had sympathy with officials, who are facing an unprecedented challenge in modern history.
“The truth is, there is a virus in the making of the rounds and every government must protect its citizens,” 42-year-old Sacha Jacobsen told Al Jazeera.
Jacobsen, Manchester’s director of marketing, said he felt the UK would recover from the pandemic “quicker than most” with the country’s early immunization campaign.
More than 500,000 people received a dose of the recently approved Pfizer-BioNTech injection as part of the immunization program, which began on December 8.
“The government has done what it can,” he said.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday that the pandemic was “gradually gaining traction with an international response” in which the UK was playing a “full part”.
His government has been repeatedly accused of abusing the pandemic, starting with its decision to lock the UK further than other European countries when it exploded. it across the continent in the spring.
The country’s total death toll from COVID-19 now stands at more than 67,000 – the second highest in Europe, behind Italy.
At the same time, COVID continues to rise. The new snort – estimated to be up to 70 per cent more contagious – is ripping through the capital, London, and the swearing of the south-east.
This rising workload was why Johnson went back to taking a break from locking measures over the Christmas period at eleven o’clock, and instead imposed stricter restrictions. on tens of millions of people.
Deepening feelings of uncertainty, negotiations on a trade deal between London and Brussels remain unstoppable.
Both sides are now running out of time quickly to prevent a false divorce when the Brexit transition period ends on 31 December and the UK union and EU customs union.
Many Britons were brutal, disappointed and angry at the turbulent end of a 12-month trial as their country struggled to reposition itself on the world stage.
But at a press conference held at his residence on Downing Street, Johnson has sought to reassure his country, telling reporters that the government was working with the National Health Agency. Universe regarding the new virus.
Raising the issue of UK remoteness recently, Johnson said he was coordinating with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, to halt the flow of UK trade with the EU as soon as possible.
At launch, lorries parked on the M20, the main road that will take them to the port of Dover and on to France, stretch for miles.