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  1. International
23 December 2020

The Tories aim to get through the pandemic by blaming the public

Boris Johnson and his allies have become adept at making others take responsibility for the chaos they have caused.

By Paul Mason

I had to watch a relative’s funeral via livestream this week. The mass was nicely done but the image quality was about the same as a surfcam. The family made the best of it.

Millions of people are enduring the coronavirus pandemic like this, through small acts of patience, compromise and toleration. The apologetic flower-stall man, down to his last few blooms because of the freight shutdown. The sign outside the pub saying “it’s not quite the Christmas we expected but we’ll be back next year”. 

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