'Covid public inquiry is dragging on - bereaved families must get to the truth'

14 January 2023 , 14:35

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A volunteer adds hearts to the National Covid Memorial Wall in Westminster, central London (Image: PA)

Every week a group of people cross Westminster Bridge with paint and brushes to preserve the memory of lost loved ones.

Their canvas is a 500m long wall opposite the Houses of Parliament but their subjects remain the same – simple red hearts, each representing a mother, father, sibling, child or partner who died from Covid-19.

There are now 200,000 hearts on display, but the volunteers ensure none fade or decay as pandemic memories wane.

They’re currently raising funds to get the paint sealed and the wall declared a permanent national memorial.

But for now, it’s a “communal bereavement group” for people like Fran Hall, 61, whose partner Steve, 65, died from Covid in October 2020, weeks after their wedding.

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Boris Johnson unveiled his portrait this week

Lynn Jones, 70, also travels down from Stoke each week to remember her husband Gareth, 66.

Looking across the river at Parliament recently, Lynne said the volunteers still feel “ignored and disrespected” by politicians, as the Covid-19 public inquiry drags on and ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson awaits a grilling over Partygate.

But this week Boris was hit with new accusations – that No10 staff had sex at lockdown parties, evidence of bashes was destroyed and that HE jokingly dubbed one booze-up “the most unsocially distanced party in the UK right now”.

He was still making jokes as he unveiled his own painting this week – a typically defiant portrait, commissioned by the Carlton Club.

Volunteers refresh the hearts that have faded away (Alahna Kindred)

“I’ve been framed!” he quipped. Well, let’s see, shall we?

Tory peer Lord Lexden certainly thinks it is wrong to portray Boris as a great leader before we discover the truth.

And he reminded his fellow Carlton Club members: “He is the first Tory prime minister ever to have been driven from office by scandal and personal misconduct.

“He is the first to be investigated by a Common’s select committee to establish whether he misled the House, an issue of great gravity.

Fran Hall re-freshes the hearts on the Covid Memorial Wall (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)

“Portraits of all Tory prime ministers adorn the club’s walls. Mr Johnson should not have been included among them at this time.”

Perhaps they could stick Boris’s portrait up in the loft for a few years. So, like the picture of Dorian Gray in Oscar Wilde’s famous novel, it can fade and decay away from public scrutiny, while its morally corrupt subject preserves a jovial veneer.

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Then, when the Covid-19 public inquiry is over they can bring the painting back down. And show the world the rotten face of the real Boris Johnson.

Rachael Bletchly