We need answers now, not in 10 years’ time

If the publication by The Daily Telegraph of The Lockdown Files tells us anything, it is that the very heart of Government was completely dysfunctional during the Covid epidemic. We can see that the claim by ministers that the science was being followed was not entirely true, arbitrary decisions were being taken and rational discourse had largely been abandoned.

This was no way to decide to spend £400billion (the cost of more than four HS2S). The National Audit Office has shown that the billions spent on Test and Trace as well as personal protective equipment was wasted.

You would think Rishi Sunak would want to learn from the mistakes in order to be in a better position to deal with the next inevitable viral epidemic.

It was certainly no way to decide to close down schools, seriously damaging millions of pupils’ education and leading to many disappearing from education altogether. It led to the ineffective protection of the elderly, the most vulnerable group. Ministers insisted that the disease didn’t discriminate. This was untrue. It discriminated heavily against the elderly.

No economic impact of the policy was undertaken, and the NHS bureaucrats conspired to keep secret the impact on non-covid patients.

Rather than wishing to learn lessons quickly in order that mistakes are not repeated, the Prime Minister when I challenged him on the floor of the House of Commons, seems content to wait for up to a decade for Baroness Hallett’s independent inquiry to report. This is not good enough. We need a shortterm focused inquiry that makes recommendations so that we do better next time.

If Government does not up its game, then when the next viral epidemic arrives, the outcome may be worse.

The Lockdown Files not only show the administration of Government in chaos, but ministers motivated by self-aggrandisement and self-preservation. They had set up a destructive feedback loop.

They tried to frighten people, in the words of Matt Hancock, the then health secretary, “we will frighten the pants” off the public and the scared population responded by demanding more restrictions.

Much of the Left forgot its proud history of supporting civil liberties and my party demanded more not less restrictions.

Or to put it another way, democracy, when it was most needed to be critical of arbitrary government taking away our freedoms, suspended itself.

The consequence of this is that there is very little appetite within parliament and even within parts of the media, who went along with the Government, to call to account the guilty parties and the unaccountable decision making. Is there not, for instance, a case to be made against Matt Hancock for malfeasance in public office?

What is clear is that chaos at the centre of Government and restricted democracy led to poor administration and decision-making with dire consequences for many. We cannot wait 10 years to examine what went wrong and improve what can be improved.

Ministers insisted that the disease didn’t discriminate. This was untrue