{"id":583221,"date":"2025-11-20T20:13:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T20:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/583221\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T20:13:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T20:13:11","slug":"chaotic-response-under-boris-johnson-was-too-little-too-late-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/583221\/","title":{"rendered":"Chaotic response under Boris Johnson was \u2018too little, too late\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The initial UK<\/a>-wide political response to the Covid-19 pandemic<\/a> was \u201ctoo little, too late\u201d and cost up to 23,000 lives in England alone during the first wave in spring 2020, the UK\u2019s pandemic inquiry has found.<\/p>\n

It also found it \u201cinexcusable\u201d that the same mistakes were repeated in later waves, while also finding that some lockdowns could have been avoided altogether.<\/p>\n

The 756-page report from the inquiry, chaired by retired judge Heather Hallett, found that a \u201ctoxic and chaotic culture\u201d in Downing Street under UK prime minister Boris Johnson<\/a> hampered the UK\u2019s response.<\/p>\n

It also blamed Mr Johnson for his \u201cfailure to appreciate the urgency of the situation\u201d as it deteriorated through March 2020. It said he \u201cactively encouraged\u201d the toxic culture, which it also blamed on people including his former adviser Dominic Cummings.<\/p>\n

The report also criticised the devolved governments in Northern Ireland<\/a>, Wales and Scotland for their \u201cfailure to engage with the threat\u201d early on in the pandemic.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The UK Covid inquiry in numbersOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

It found that later in the response, Wales evolved to a \u201cconsensual\u201d political decision-making approach while real power in Scotland became very centralised around former first minister Nicola Sturgeon. But it found she was a \u201cserious and diligent leader\u201d who took \u201cresponsibility\u201d.<\/p>\n

The political response in the North, however, was found to be \u201cchaotic\u201d at times and \u201cmarred\u201d by political disputes between Sinn F\u00e9in and the DUP.<\/p>\n

The report found that the UK\u2019s lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 left \u201clong lasting scars\u201d on society and exacerbated inequality.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Covid-19 lockdowns only became inevitable because of the actions and omissions of the [UK and devolved] governments,\u201d the report found.<\/p>\n

It said it \u201cshould have been clear\u201d by the end of January 2020 on evidence that the virus had spread beyond China that it posed a \u201cserious and immediate threat\u201d but the UK\u2019s political system \u201clacked urgency\u201d.<\/p>\n

It said Mr Johnson\u2019s failure to appreciate the urgency was \u201cdue to his optimism that it would amount to nothing\u201d. Meanwhile, the devolved governments had all \u201cfailed to engage with the threat\u201d in the early stages.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Brexit \u2018tensions\u2019 contributed to disconnect between London and Dublin\u2019s Covid-19 responsesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The report found that February 2020 was a \u201clost month\u201d in the UK\u2019s response, when it initially followed a looser but doomed containment or \u201cherd immunity\u201d strategy, due to worries that UK citizens would not follow antivirus restrictions over a long period.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis concept of \u2018behavioural fatigue\u2019 had no concept in behavioural science and proved damaging,\u201d the report found.<\/p>\n

It found that Friday March 13th, 2020, was a \u201cwatershed moment\u201d in the UK\u2019s response, when authorities realised they had underestimated the initial spread of the virus and its impact.<\/p>\n

It found that restrictions implemented on March 16th in the UK should have been done sooner. If so, it said that later mandatory lockdowns might have been lighter or not necessary at all.<\/p>\n

But the inquiry rejected the notion that governments were wrong to impose lockdown in principle. Ms Hallett said that \u201cno government, acting in accordance with its overarching duty to preserve life, could ignore\u201d the advice to implement lockdowns.<\/p>\n

The report criticised Mr Johnson\u2019s UK government for coming out of the first lockdown too fast, while the devolved governments were all more cautious. However, the response in the North was undermined by disputes when former deputy first minister Michelle O\u2019Neill sparked a row by attending the funeral of IRA man Bobby Storey.<\/p>\n

It said the various governments \u201call failed to learn from the experience of the first lockdown\u201d. In particular, it criticised Mr Johnson\u2019s government for failing to implement a \u201ccircuit breaker\u201d lockdown in autumn of 2020, which it said might have lessened the need for later stricter lockdowns.<\/p>\n

The report was less critical of UK and devolved government actions later in the pandemic, especially after the emergence of vaccines. \u201cThe four governments had learned,\u201d Ms Hallett said.<\/p>\n

She found that, at times, children \u201cwere not always prioritised\u201d as they should have been. She found that the UK cabinet was \u201clargely sidelined\u201d during the pandemic, amid its \u201ctoxic\u201d decision making culture. She criticised in particular the \u201cdestabilising behaviour\u201d of Mr Cummings.<\/p>\n

Ms Hallett found that police at times operated with little guidance, while public messaging sometimes \u201cfailed to reflect the laws\u201d actually in place. A \u201clack of trust\u201d between Mr Johnson and the devolved first ministers also \u201ccoloured the approach\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The initial UK-wide political response to the Covid-19 pandemic was \u201ctoo little, too late\u201d and cost up to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[5109,748,1117,393,4884,20584,7853,1144,712,16,3106,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-583221","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-boris-johnson","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-covid-19","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-michelle-o-neill","15":"tag-nicola-sturgeon","16":"tag-northern-ireland","17":"tag-scotland","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-uk-politics","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115583857838826204","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}