The front page of Bild, Germany’s best read newspaper, this morning was emblazoned with a large Union Jack and the words “Dear Britain, we envy you” written across it. Accompanying text read that “the English have announced their return to normality on June 21… and here there’s no hope”. The paper noted that a total of 17.7 million Brits have been jabbed, compared to just 3.4 million in Germany.

Bild went on to say that as Boris announced the UK’s great relaxation plan to get things normal by June, Angela Merkel told the Bundestag “We cannot define away the fact that we now have a third wave.” Her Chancellery chief Helge Braun went on to add that in Germany “March, April and May” would be “difficult months”. By contrast Boris’s plan sees almost everything other than nightclubs back in May. While Guido would like the PM to confirm that if the data allows, things can go faster, compared to countries trapped in the lumbering EU, the UK’s plan is a speedboat.

“What did these three do better?” screams Bild’s headline under Netanyahu, Boris and Trump. The text makes it clear:

“Since the beginning of the corona pandemic, this trio has been silently mocked and ridiculed by the German government and the EU Commission. When it came to getting vaccinated, they put Berlin and Brussels in the shade [they] have the most successful vaccination campaigns in the western world on their feet. The fact is: as of January 26, Israel had 32% of its citizens vaccinated against the corona virus at least once. In Great Britain it was at least 10.6%, in the USA 6%. For comparison: Germany has 2%, the entire EU has 1.9%. …

Instead of haggling over the price for months like the EU Commission did, Netanyahu bravely grabbed the state wallet. According to insiders, Israel pays at least twice as much per dose of vaccine.

In March 2020, Brexit-Boris laid the foundation for the vaccination success: It brought the Oxford University together with AstraZeneca. Your mission: to develop the remedy against Corona together. Instead of waiting for the EU junk commission, Johnson ordered 30 million doses of vaccine from BionTech / Pfizer on July 20. The British now vaccinate in stadiums, clinics and doctors’ offices.

The loss of German confidence was not helped when the first German vaccinated was vaccinated in England. This humiliation is reconfirmed in the breathless copy of Peter Wilke, Bild’s UK reporter, exclaiming that whilst he had not received a vaccination appointment in his home town of Mühlheim, he was shocked to get an SMS text from the NHS, “Suddenly I got a vaccination appointment in England!”

Guido has not seen any British media reporting of the Kremlin’s statement that on a call this week between Putin and Merkel “Cooperation in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic was discussed , with particular attention to the possible prospects for joint vaccine production”.  Desperate times make allies of necessity…