One thing is for sure, those at the top are still on large salaries

WHAT many ordinary people have been saying since last year is that another lockdown was inevitable.

This Government’s advisors warned of a further lockdown and contested the initial decision by the Prime Minister to have a five-day Christmas period. He again did another U-turn.

The management of this pandemic was never going to be easy, but the Government’s decisions at best have been adequate, which is no standard at all, and at worse disastrous to people’s health, livelihoods and lives.

There has been a catalogue of poor decisions, and numerous U-turns to say the least:

The new virus strain reportedly started in the south east if reports are correct. We saw pictures in the national press of thousands of Christmas shoppers in major areas of London with no social distancing and many without masks. To add insult to injury when London and the south east was placed under Tier 4 we saw the mass exodus of people on trains and other transport out of the area to all parts of the country.

The Home Secretary, who appears to want to fight everybody, is placing a minimum threshold on salaries for qualified staff from overseas including the medical profession. No doubt this will push up the wage bill where many of our own staff are paid lower than these rates in the health and care sector.

There are now concerns about the supply and delivery of vaccines. We have well established and recorded GP surgeries, health centres, care homes and hospitals to cater for the majority of people and working with community groups to vaccinate those who are homeless and others not covered by these other groups.

We have one of the best, if not the best Armed Services in the world who are experts and specialists in logistics.

The whole exercise should be planned and managed by these specialists in their field, and not used for delivery and assisting in vaccination only. We could then be assured that this planning will be thorough and precise. This is what they do.

Some may say hindsight is a fine thing but much of the above has been raised by numerous ordinary citizens as well as experts. Most if not all is logic and about foresight.

One thing is consistent though, that the decision makers will still be receiving their large salaries while the rest have to see, wait and worry. David Bonomi

Bristol