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Boris Johnson will probably hand out many more UK work visas to India
(AFP via Getty)
I
t is sometimes reported that Boris Johnson’s preferred method of decision-making is to delay matters for so long that the decision effectively makes itself. Hence the cancellation, or rather postponement, of his trade mission to India. Having no doubt been informed by his own health advisers that India was to be placed on the “red list” for travel restrictions, the prime minister could hardly press on with his trip. He could have called it off days ago, when the extreme seriousness of the situation in India first became clear, but it would have been embarrassing for him and his hosts. Covid intervened. Infection rates are rising rapidly, the vaccination programme is nowhere near complete, hospitals are becoming overwhelmed, and a new variant of the coronavirus, possibly more dangerous, is circulating; and these facts are connected. The questions of why it took the government so long to restrict travel from India, and how long the delay after the official public health advice to that effect was received, remain unanswered.