[OLD BOY]

It’s all very well to criticise, but you were not having to make the decisions.

The nature of Covid was not fully understood at the beginning and the scientists were giving conflicting advice on how to deal with it. First it was the herd immunity plan and then suddenly we were into full scale lockdown mode.

The mask problem was worldwide, and every country had difficulty and delay in acquiring enough for their populations. We were well stocked apparently, but there were logistical problems with distribution. Again, the scientists were telling us that masks were ineffective in the early days.

Foreign travel policy was constantly changing, but opening up our borders had to be in line with the situation on the ground in other countries. We could have had a blanket ban on foreign travel, like Australia, but their policy has been nothing short of a disaster, causing great resentment in the country.

A legitimate criticism was about Track & Trace (although that is working better now), but the rate at which everything was moving was so fast, we were always going to be caught on the back foot.

In the end, of course, Boris came through, and his foresight in putting money into the vaccine programme was second to none and it transformed our ability to get back on our feet.

I keep comparing this to how Mr Hindsight would have fared if he was in charge, and believe me, it wouldn’t have been a laughing matter!