The content of Baroness Hallett’s report into the UK’s Covid-19 inquiry is damning.
The first responsibility of the UK and Scottish governments is to keep their citizens safe.
In this sense, the administrations of London and Edinburgh failed and thousands of people died under their command.
The world had not seen anything like the pandemic in a century and mistakes were inevitable.
But Baroness Hallett’s report shows the country is woefully unprepared for the carnage of Covid.
The report concluded that we were prepared for the “wrong pandemic” and that the strategy adopted in 2011 was “outdated” and “unproven”.
The consequences of lack of preparation were misery and pain for many families.
The thoughts of Lee Dodds’ father in today’s Record will resonate with those who have lost a loved one during the pandemic.
There are tens of thousands of such stories on these islands.
No one expected our leaders to be perfect and not make mistakes, but we did have the right to expect them to follow the same rules as us instead of celebrating.
There can be no free pass for the betrayals of Boris Johnson’s administration as millions of people did as they were told.
Baroness Hallett makes a series of recommendations in her first report on Covid.
They include a UK-wide pandemic response exercise every three years and a new approach to risk assessment.
All of them should be implemented. As she herself says, there will almost certainly be another pandemic and it could be even more deadly than the last one.
It is the responsibility of Westminster and Holyrood to ensure that the mistakes made are not repeated.
You are welcome
Tracey Whiteside’s life was intolerable in her old home.
Paisley’s one-legged mother had to crawl up and down two flights of stairs to get out.
She described her apartment as a “prison” and said she was “trapped.”
The 48-year-old said: “I was convinced those stairs were going to be the death of me.”
But after the Record told her harrowing story, her local council contacted her to offer her a new home more suited to her needs.
He now has a handicap ramp leading to his front door and no longer faces the agony of climbing concrete stairs to get through.
Tracey described her new place as “perfect” and thanked the Record. We’re more than happy to help, Tracey.
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