The appearance of dealing with things

Today is an auspicious day. Mark the date carefully on a calendar, especially if you are one of the hundreds of thousands of relatives of people who have died of Covid-19. For today, the prime minister announced that there would be an inquiry into the pandemic. That's it. No further detail.

When will this inquiry take place?  "In the future," said the PM. Extraordinarily farsighted that man.

Why isn't the inquiry immediate? More than 150,000 people had signed an online petition, organised by Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, calling for an immediate inquiry into the government's handling of the pandemic. The prime minister said now was "not the right moment to devote huge amounts of official time to an inquiry," when the UK was in the middle of the pandemic.

What will be the nature of the inquiry? We don't know

Who will lead it, a top judge renowned for an independent stance, or will it be an academic or civil servant? We don't know.

If now isn't the right time, when is? No detail. 'In the future' is all we have. If we are waiting until the coronvirus fight is won that could mean for months or even years. There is no indication of the timeframe.

What will be the remit of the inquiry? We don't know.

Will witnesses be questioned under oath by barristers? We don't know.

What do we know? We know a lot of people are dead and are still dying and that a second wave is due in the Autumn/Winter. We know that we need to have everything sorted out before that second wave hits, so that means July and August. We don't have longer than that. Examining what we did wrong in the first wave, what could and should be improved and making the changes necessary to prepare properly, is a process that is needed now. It cannot wait for an inquiry sometime in the future.

Will this happen? No.


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