In their defence of Cummings, the Government have totally changed the basis of adherence to Covid-19 restrictions. This has now become an 'I' thing - a matter of individual choice - and that fatally undermines the effectiveness of these restrictions. This is why.

Nearly half the population were suffering from lockdown, and had they been acting for themselves or their families, they wouldn't have accepted it. But they made the sacrifice because they were acting for the wider community: see https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/lockdown-social-norms/

This isn't true of the UK. New data from @AllisonHarrell in Canada shows how people were adhering out of a communal sense of duty, not personal choice. People understood they had to make sacrifices to save lives - and that kept us together.

But now, a chorus of ministers tell us we were wrong, that when lockdown gets tough we can all make self-serving interpretations to look after our own and abandon the community - that 'I' and 'mine' should trump 'we' and 'ours'.

That way, everything falls apart. Unity and sacrifice give way to selfishness and competition. The greatest asset we had in stopping the spread of Covid-19 is casually tossed aside. That certainly is not Government either by the people, of the people or for the people.