Boris Johnson made a big error, alright. But it wasn’t walking into a room where his wife had prepared him a surprise birthday cake. It was in overriding his liberal instincts and imposing highly prescriptive lockdown rules in the first place. If, in March 2020, he had stood up to advisers and said that no, it was not the business of the state to micromanage people’s lives – had he banned large gatherings, closed crowded pubs but left private meetings to our sense of personal responsibility – then he would not be in the position he is today.