Analysis of why the UK did so poorly without resorting to simplistic political point scoring would be more useful. Focus on the issues, not just because you don't like the Tories.
I regard Jeremy Corbyn, who would otherwise be PM had he not utterly failed at the last election, as a man driven by political ideology, supported by incompetent sycophants (John McDonnell being an exception). But this does not explain what went wrong with covid.
- the UK had totally inadequate contingency plans - lack of PPE, testing capacity, ventilators etc. This is the fault of earlier governments - possibly going back several decades.
- By around 14th March, the track and trace strategy was stopped on the grounds that infection in the community was too widespread. A contingency planning weakness.
- Boris locked down a week too late. Certainly with hindsight he was wrong.
- I'm am unconvinced closing borders would have made any real difference once community infection was widespread. NZ are the end of a branch line, UK is a hub. Comparison is pointless.
- Boris should have held the first lockdown a few weeks more to get infection rates right down over the summer.
- Boris delayed the second lockdown by 2-3 weeks contrary to scientific advice
- The mutated virus was not predictable and made what may have been an otherwise reasonable plan over xmas wrong.
- The vaccine rollout can thus far only be judged a great success
- Education was and is a shambles
The only major european neighbour to have performed notably better is Germany. They locked down earlier in March, but are now experiencing precisely the same problems as the rest of western europe
Track and trace only works with low levels of infection. We did not get this right. When new cases exceed 10k per day it becomes ineffective.
The UK has a policing by consent culture. It has limited capacity to force compliance, unlike other parts of the world.
The UK believes social irresponsibility is a right. Other cultures place a high value on personal adherence to social norms.
The UK is very fertile ground to encourage the spread of a virus. It is passed on by social interaction. We allow misinformation to flourish. We are more concerned to protect peoples rights than lives. We have neither the culture or capability to ensure compliance.
We were sitting ducks waiting for a pandemic to occur. Government repsonse may have been different with a different administration, but I suspect the outcome may have been very similar.
