A Hat Trick of Failures How 'The Blob' Led the British Government Down the Wrong Path - COVID-19 Review

Paperback (01 Jan 2020)

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Publisher's Synopsis

Britain has achieved an undesirable hat trick of failures in its Covid-19 pandemic response. Jim McConalogue and Tim Knox argue in this report that: (1) Along with Spain, Britain has the highest excess death rate per capita in the world for the first half of 2020. (2) The government's reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic has also been one of the most financially expensive of any country in the OECD both in terms of the cost of the measures that the government has taken and the overall damage to the economy. (3) Only three countries in the world are less prepared to ease lockdown restrictions than the UK: Algeria, Nicaragua and Iran. McConalogue and Knox put the blame for this poor response on what they call 'The Blob' - the scientific clique entrenched within a managerialist Whitehall culture which the politicians chose not to confront or question.They show how the advisory groups to the government appear to have been granted 'a representa

About the Publisher

Civitas

Civitas is a community of researchers and supporters committed to discovering how best to strengthen democracy, uphold limited government, maintain personal freedom, achieve opportunity for all, and encourage free enterprise. We strive to achieve our ideals through independent research, reasoned argument, lucid explanation and open public debate. We stand apart from party politics and transitory intellectual fashions in pursuit of the enduring ideals that have made Britain a fortress of liberal civilisation. We make our work available in books, pamphlets, online, and in electronic formats and encourage authors to make their arguments accessible to non-specialists. Some publications are designed for use in schools and universities, including a series a factsheets about the European Union for sixth forms. Most recently, we have published a knowledge-rich primary school curriculum designed to enable children of all abilities to share in the intellectual heritage of Western civilisation. We also carry our arguments into schools and universities by organising talks and debates. Uniquely among think tanks, we play an active, practical part in rebuilding civil society, particularly by running schools on Saturdays and after-school hours so that children who are falling behind at school can achieve their full potential.