The delayed lockdowns, the PPE failures, the billions wasted on test and trace, the cronyism: the public need answers
Boris Johnson likes to imagine history pivoting on the palms of heroic individuals. That is the thrust of his 2014 book, The Churchill Factor, which depicts Britain’s wartime leader as a man predestined for greatness by unique qualities in his character. The author drops unsubtle hints about his own uncanny possession of a similar spirit.
The pandemic tells a different story. If there has been a “Johnson factor” it will not be recorded as the key to national salvation, even by generous biographers. Too many people have died who might have lived if different decisions had been taken, or had the same decisions taken without procrastination. The current death toll exceeds 125,000, making Britain one of the deadliest battlefields in the global struggle against Covid. Why?
