Jonathan Calvert - Failures of State: The Inside Story of Britain’s Battle with Coronavirus

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First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2021

FIRST EDITION

Jonathan Calvert and George Arbuthnott 2021

Cover design Steve Leard HarperCollinsPublishers 2021

Sunday Times graphics on coronavirus The Sunday Times/News Licensing

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Source ISBN: 9780008430528

Ebook Edition March 2021 ISBN: 9780008430535

Version: 2021-02-08

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To all the bright sparks, the friends and lovers lost, and the hearts broken by this wretched pestilence. And to the doctors, nurses and carers who held their hands.

Prologue

The last Monday before the clocks went back in March 2020 had been a day for brisk walks in the sunshine under flawless azure skies. But the freshness and promise of a fine spring day at the end of a long rainy winter did little to temper the collective sense of unease being felt across Britain. As darkness fell, people hunkered down in their homes, unsure about what would happen next. Like participants in an all-too-real Doomsday film, the nation tuned in to radios, switched on their televisions and flicked through their smartphones, awaiting that evenings important announcement on the only issue of the moment: the virus. It was a crisis unlike any other in modern Britain and it now gripped the country. People feared for their lives. Outside, beneath the stars, the flashing blue lights of ambulances strafed through empty city streets, their wailing sirens amplified in the stillness.

It had been almost three months since the stealthy killer had crept into the country and it was now replicating itself with alarming speed. The virus had already embedded itself in the lungs of more than a million people in the UK and many of them would perish in the grim weeks that followed. One hospital had been forced to turn away patients because it could not cope with such a large number of infections and France was threatening to close its borders to England. The French were horrified by the way the virus had been allowed to run rampant without tougher control measures being introduced by their English neighbours a few miles across the Channel. The crisis was beginning to look desperate and finally something had to be done. The prime minister was guaranteed an immense and captive audience for his address to the nation, which had been scheduled at 8.30 p.m. a later time than his now familiar daily press conferences, which signified that something serious was about to be announced.

This was the kind of historic moment that Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson believed he had been born for. As a young child with supreme self-confidence, Johnson had told his family he would be a world king although he eventually lowered his sights to settle for prime minister. His adolescent role model had been Winston Churchill, the doughty leader who had rallied Britain through the last great national emergency, the Second World War. In his 2014 biography of his illustrious predecessor, The Churchill Factor, Johnson describes how thrusting young Tories regarded Churchill as a divinity and sported posters of their pin-striped cigar-chomping idol on teenage walls. He was, no doubt, referring to a particular teenager with a shot of blond shaggy hair and a comparably large ego. One of the key arguments in Johnsons biography is that Adolf Hitler would have won the war and Nazism would have prevailed throughout Europe had it not been for his hero prime minister.

This was now Johnsons moment to rally the nation in its darkest hour. Could he summon his inner Churchill and save Britain from the threat of the coronavirus pandemic? Twenty-eight million people tuned in to watch Johnsons address from Downing Street that evening. The camera had framed the doorway of the White Drawing Room the great state reception overlooking the No. 10 gardens, which has hosted US presidents from Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama and was once used by Churchill himself as his bedroom. In the middle of the frame was Johnson looking his most headmasterly as he earnestly leant forward towards the camera with clasped hands his elbows resting on a polished antique desk. Such was the gravity of the moment, he had even combed his haystack hair into something resembling neatness.

The coronavirus is the biggest threat this country has faced for decades and this country is not alone. All over the world we are seeing the devastating impact of this invisible killer, his address began. Without a huge national effort to halt the growth of this virus, there will come a moment when no health service in the world could possibly cope; because there wont be enough ventilators, enough intensive care beds, enough doctors and nurses.

The time has now come for us all to do more. From this evening I must give the British people a very simple instruction: you must stay at home.

Those final five words will probably stick in our collective memory for decades. Never before had such an extraordinary instruction been given to the people of Britain. We were told to remain in our homes indefinitely. People would only be allowed out of the house for a limited set of activities: to buy food or medical supplies; to visit the doctor or hospital; to help someone vulnerable; and to exercise once a day. Some people would still be permitted to travel to work, but only if their job was absolutely necessary. Meetings with friends or family members who lived outside the household were forbidden. That evening, there were tears in many homes as people began to realise that they would be parted from loved ones in such uncertain times when everyones life appeared to be in danger.

The clampdown on civil liberties was far-reaching. Johnson made clear: We will stop all gatherings of more than two people in public excluding people you live with; and well stop all social events, including weddings, baptisms and other ceremonies, but excluding funerals. Anyone who disobeyed would be breaking the law. If you dont follow the rules the police will have the powers to enforce them, Johnson added. The immediate effects on the British economy would be enormous. In a stroke the prime minister had brought trade and commerce to a great shuddering halt, and this decision would, no doubt, have ramifications for many years to come. No prime minister wants to enact measures like this. I know the damage that this disruption is doing and will do to peoples lives, to their businesses and to their jobs, he said.