no it hasn't, it's kept him doing what he always does, wandering from tactical decision to tactical decision. the March lockdown only happened when public pressure became unbearable, he allowed the treasury to subsidise people eating in restaurants, he continues, in month nine, to hand large contracts to unqualified mates, both wasting money and reducing the ability to deal with the pandemic, and despite it being a once-in-a-century pandemic, did not ask for an extension on the disorganised negotiations with the EU, meaning that in the middle of December, it's still unclear how trade with EU, including...food and medicine, is meant to work in 12 days.
his entire career is just making the easy choice in the moment with no forethought.
He thought it was however perfectly humane to cancel all of the other religious holidays, and though that doesn't speak to his bumbling act, it speaks volumes about his character.
Christmas is a key Christian festival, and the UK is a Christian country, with the monarch as the head of its official church. So perhaps no surprises if it gets special treatment.
I'm of two minds about this particular decision - Johnson is a crook and a fraud, but in this case I can't really blame him for making the decision (Our late decision to go into lockdown killed people, though).
I don't get why people have to personalise this. Johnson's decision is easy, go with the expertise or ignore it and make something up. Things for some reason seem now always to have to be presented as the policy of one political "team" as if a country can be run by relying entirely on a small group of politicians to come up with all the ideas.
We should be using statisticians, virologists, public health advisors, doctors, etc., to come up with suggestions. Maybe a few separate groups. Johnson's decision then is "shall I try and circumvent this expert advice or not".
Seems like politicians have no idea how to delegate, and press are so poor at reporting they can't somehow cope with presenting things that aren't personality competitions.
The best thing Johnson could do is sanction his advisors and make sure of the rule of law in their regard - he's used his father as a personal representative in governmental actions, but his father has been publicly and openly breaching the rules. Who could possibly honour "Johnson's" advice when he won't even hold his own personnel to that standard. It's beyond ridiculous and shows utter contempt for the British public IMO.
I don't think anything much has changed wrt a strategy. The main pointer here is the allowance in the strictest tier for group worship, and allowing Christmas grottos to stay open- not exactly science led.
Johnson is an oaf, but covid has kept him fairly serious. His waffling bumbling act was dropped.