22 Dec 2020 Many broadcast news bulletins featured footage of lorries queuing for miles along the M20 in Kent yesterday (Monday) after France closed its border with the UK. But Boris Johnson gave a televised briefing putting what appeared to be a positive gloss on events and stressing that the government and local authorities had contingency plans in place. The prime minister said: “We’ve activated our long-prepared plans, with the result that we’ve already been able to reduce the number of lorries waiting on the M20 from 500 to 170.” Mr Johnson was speaking just before ten past five on Monday afternoon. He didn’t give any indication that he had an earlier time in mind when he talked about the number of lorries falling.