The claim, branded “horrific” by bereaved families, emerged from notebooks kept
by Imran Shafi, Johnson’s private secretary for public service, during the UK
Covid-19 Inquiry, an investigation that has been set up to examine the UK’s
response to and impact of the pandemic. The inquiry heard that Johnson had
earlier said the “biggest damage [from Covid will be] done by overreaction”
during a meeting on 28 February 2020 where lockdown restrictions were discussed.
Shafi said under questioning that Johnson “definitely did not want a lockdown”
in March 2020, despite being aware that the worst case scenario of hundreds of
thousands of deaths was becoming increasingly likely. But he agreed by 2 March
2020 that “control had been lost” and that “nothing short of a lockdown would
suffice”. It would be another three weeks before a UK-wide lockdown would be
announced.
To play devil’s advocate, isn’t it always the case that the government is balancing on the right rope between keeping the economy going and keeping people alive, even without a pandemic? With NHS funding, welfare and all sorts of things government has to decide where to draw the line.
Obviously Johnson handled this crisis horrificly though, but in terms of this quote he just said the quiet part loud.
To play devil’s advocate, isn’t it always the case that the government is balancing on the right rope between keeping the economy going and keeping people alive, even without a pandemic? With NHS funding, welfare and all sorts of things government has to decide where to draw the line.
Obviously Johnson handled this crisis horrificly though, but in terms of this quote he just said the quiet part loud.