Missteps and inability to own up to errors

WHEN talking about the pandemic, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said that “we’ve all been catastrophically let down by the Government” (Quotes Of the Day, September 21). Politics aside, this just about sums events up.

But Boris Johnson and his ministers never admit to any mistakes such as not stopping flights from northern Italy at a time when the virus was taking a terrible toll in that region. A decisive lack of foresight in all of this plus they warned us. “Nero fiddled while

Rome burned” comes to mind.

Going back a couple of weeks, did nobody in Government take note that a number of nations in east Asia were closing their borders and ordering the mass wearing of face masks? Is it just a coincidence that those nations in the main, even allowing for a number of other factors, have fared much better than us? I think not.

The Mayor continued: “If ministers had risen to this moment, as the British public have, then the loss of many lives and much of the economic hardship could have been avoided.” While I get the point he was making, there are many that have not risen – as they are not adhering to the rules.

During this pandemic it is precisely this type of irresponsible behaviour that is causing the virus to spread and now seriously jeopardising all our futures.

It would have helped if the Government had got the basic message (“hand-face-space”) across some time ago. The large numbers flouting the rules and the rising number of cases is proof enough that they have still not done so. If some graphic details had been shown instead of a lot of confusing charts at the Downing Street briefings then perhaps far fewer people would be breaking the rules as the media would have reported it.

Mark Iles, by email