ACCUSED NEW BOOK PUTS PM IN THE DOCK
Deadly delays in imposing lockdowns led to tens of 1000s of needless deaths, the PPE scandal shocked Britain. Yet Johnson resists calls for a public inquiry as ‘the time is not right ’.. but here we reveal a trail of laziness and ineptitude that demands a
phone booth and emerge as the supercharged champion” of free trade.
He added: “I tell you in all humility that the UK is ready for that role.”
Far from becoming the Superman of No10, within six weeks the Prime Minister would belatedly, reluctantly and against the libertarian dogma of a lifetime, impose the first medically rational lockdown of the economy.
At first, “puppyish” Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, claimed the risk from the virus was “low.”
Yet Chinese doctors suggested it could be as bad as the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic, which killed many millions of people.
Cobra, the Government emergency committee, met five times to consider what might happen if Covid-19 hit the UK. SuperBoris never attended.
A Health Department insider admitted to the authors: “We missed the boat on testing and PPE.
“We did nothing. We just watched.” In the aftermath of Brexit, ministers who had sneered at “experts” now demeaned those warning of the risks, disclosed the book’s Downing Street deep throat, saying: “They lost the ability to hear scientists.”
Worse, it felt like no one was in charge, said the source. The Prime Minister’s closest colleagues worked on the principle, “If this was the big one, he might look like he gave a s***.
“And he didn’t look like he did. He liked his country breaks. He didn’t work weekends.
“He didn’t do urgent crisis planning. It was exactly like people feared he would be.”
Infections and deaths soared. Worse, old people were shunted, untested, off wards into care homes, eventually causing a spike that took 30,000 lives.
When Johnson himself caught the virus – and almost died – aides hoped he would now take the crisis seriously.
But old instincts won. His message: “Go back to work if you can.” There was a summer free-for-all, with subsidised meals out. Schools and universities returned. So did the virus.
Unabashed, Johnson made the same mistake again. He faffed about with unworkable tiers, rejected advice from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies for a two-week “circuit break” and sneered at Labour leader Keir Starmer for backing the idea.
Calvert and Arbuthnott claim he was nearly convinced, but took the political path of least resistance to appease Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
“Mostly, he was winging it,” they argue. Finally he accepted the inevitable with a new four-week lockdown. Had he acted earlier, experts estimate up to 13,400 lives might have been saved.
He undid the benefits by opening up homes in some areas for a family Christmas, triggering a New Year spike, largely due to the emergence of the highly-infectious Kent variant.
Then came his third delayed lockdown, under which we still labour.
“History is unlikely to be kind to Johnson and his stewardship,” say the authors. “Some leaders quickly grasped the reality and took tough decisions when they were necessary.
“In Britain there was a wishful thinking by the Prime Minister that everything would be OK… it was not.
“Johnson’s decisions – in particular the delays to lockdowns – had a cataclysmic impact on his country, leaving it viewed as a “plague island”.
Only now, with the NHS-led vaccination campaign, can we look forward with cautious confidence.
Meanwhile, hear this warning from Richard Horton, editor of medical journal The Lancet.
He says of the Government: “They really are scared that the verdict of history is going to condemn them for contributing to the deaths of tens of thousands of British citizens.
“They are desperately trying to rewrite the timeline of what happened. And we must not let them.”
Amen. This penetrating analysis of political folly in high places marks the beginning of that process. ●Failures of State, The Inside Story of Britain’s Battle with Coronavirus, by Jonathan Calvert and George Arbuthnott, HarperCollins, £20.
He didn’t do urgent crisis planning & looked like he didn’t give a s*** BOOK SOURCE ON PM’S RESPONSE TO THE VIRUS