Boris Johnson's failure to close the UK Border in January 2020 has wasted £200 BILLION (and counting)

Boris Johnson's failure to close the UK Border in January 2020 has cost the public purse in the United Kingdom some £200 BILLION (and counting).

If Boris Johnson had closed the UK Border on 7th January 2020 (the day that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was identified as a novel coronavirus), the SARS-CoV-2 virus would not have been allowed to enter the United Kingdom.

If the SARS-CoV-2 virus had been prevented from entering the United Kingdom some 100,000 deaths in the UK from Covid-19 would have been avoided.

If there were no cases of Covid-19 in the United Kingdom, life within the UK could have continued as normal ... at least for those of us not involved in the international travel industry.

There would have been no need for any "lockdown".

Schools could have remained open and there would be no "lost generation" whose education has been avoidably messed up.

Tourism in the UK would have flourished, in part because of people who might usually go abroad for their holidays being, in effect, forced to holiday in the UK.

Restaurants, pubs, sporting events etc could have continued as normal.

The huge loss in Gross Domestic Product caused by "lockdown"(s) would have been avoided.

"Furlough" or similar measures would have been targeted at the (much smaller) number of people directly involved with international travel.

 My estimate of the avoidable waste of public money is £200 BILLION. A proper calculation needs to be done by someone with more understanding of macroeconomics than I have.

That's £200 BILLION wasted ... "spaffed up a wall", if you have a taste for Boris Johnson's flamboyant use of language.

This is a matter that the Public Accounts Committee urgently needs to investigate.

When the next pandemic comes along the United Kingdom cannot afford to repeat Boris Johnson's disastrous mistakes.