"Covid-19 has been a pretty good standardised test of a government’s competence and a state’s ability to coordinate effectively and quickly. On both counts, Johnson has been a failure. Dithering over lockdown cost tens of thousands of lives, lack of PPE put health and care workers at unconscionable risk, a contact-tracing app that’s up and running in other countries won’t be ready in the UK until winter. 4 decades of neoliberalism and the Balkanisation of the public sector has hollowed out our state capacity. But Johnson’s 50-odd years of political dilettantism left him uniquely ill-prepared for governing in a crisis. In March, when Italy was racked by rising infections and spiralling fatalities, the prime minister boasted of shaking hands with “everybody” at a hospital where there were coronavirus patients. By April, he was in intensive care."



- “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” - George Orwell -