Absolutely extraordinary to see how the ‘Northern Powerhouse/Level Up’ Tories have forced northern mayors into a de facto alliance against the government because of the government’s high-handed, arrogant, and grossly incompetent management of the pandemic in the North.

So in addition to widening divisions bet/ England and other U.K. member-states through Brexit (exacerbated by mismanagement of the pandemic), this government-of-the-damned is widening the North-South divide, further eroding the solidarity needed to respond to Covid effectively.

All they had to do was listen to what Burnham and the other mayors were saying, communicate with them, have a dialogue between central and local government re. lockdowns, furloughs, test and trace. Basic emergency management. Yet the useless Johnson cabal couldn’t even do that.

Never mind the rubbish being spoken that ‘Boris is doing his best’ and ‘No other government could have done better’. He’s not. Other governments have done better. There is no evidence that this one can ever be made to do the right thing.

It’s natural instincts are Brexit sloganising, headline-grabbing promises, inattention to detail, failure to prepare, know-it-all arrogance, failure to listen, all coupled with nepotism and a willingness to use to pandemic to cover up the Brexit fiasco & make money for its mates.

In short, a catastrophe of a government at a catastrophic time. A government guaranteed to make a bad situation worse. The absolute opposite of everything we need to get us through a pandemic that - coupled with Brexit - threatens to rip society to pieces.

In March, there was a real mood of solidarity, seriousness, and discipline across the country - a recognition of the seriousness of what was at stake and the common threat to the NHS that forced the government to take action. Now that is dangerously frayed,