My questions

I READ with interest Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown’s open letter to the leader of Cotswold District Council and the suggestions that the council is being mismanaged during the current Covid crisis.

I trust that this is only one part of his plan to challenge, not only local, but national Government, and its decisions, at this time.

Might I suggest that some of the questions he poses of the current UK Government are - why the Government assured our nation that we were all safe and we had systems in place to cope?

Why we currently have the highest death rate per capita due to Covid-19 in Europe?

Why schools, amongst other organisations, had to provide PPE to hospitals and care homes during the crisis?

Why the Prime Minister initially defended the decision to charge NHS workers who were born overseas to use NHS service?

Why retired NHS workers including those from vulnerable groups were encouraged to return to work in hospitals?

Why care homes were initially ignored when planning for the protection of healthcare workers?

Why the actions of the Prime Minister’s Covid infected chief advisor (Dominic Cumming) and architect of the Government’s message to “stay home and save lives” was not challenged by the Prime Minister and that these actions were defended by his cabinet?

Why it took so long to develop a testing system the information from which would have better informed decision making?

Why we being encouraged to shop yet still do not have track and tracing app?

Why we do not have a fully functioning national track and trace programme ?

Why it took the activism of a footballer to reverse the decision on free school meals?

Why the Education Secretary’s £350 million plans for helping school pupils to catch up highly unlikely to be cost effective unless it is teachers who are employed to do such work rather hastily trained graduates with no teaching experience?

Why NHS procurement system is so poor that NHS dentists are unable to secure PPE to allow them to open and treat patients?

Stephen Hacker

Cirencester