[St Charles Owl]

Exactly Theo.

I happen to think Governments should be judged by their ability to minimise transmission and deaths, not by the effect of an arbitrary population size.

Sorry Jim, cannot agree with that. Population and population density are completely intertwined with any governments ability to minimise transmission and deaths during a pandemic!! A statement that the population doesn't matter makes you sound like the Trumpsters over here!! California has the highest numbers in the US in terms of cases and deaths, not because they have done it all wrong but because they have far more people than any other state, yet they get hammered by the right because of their totals when in reality a far smaller percentage of the population have had it or died from it in CA than most other states. California has enforced more restrictions and stay at home orders than most other states and it has worked to keep the hospitals functioning and reduced the number of people who could have suffered from it, like the UK it is having another spike at the moment and again restrictions have been tightened in response to that. Other right wing states that have much lower populations have much higher death rates and still don't have mandatory mask rules in place, but get a pass from the right because their overall numbers are not as high as New York's or California's.

My point wasn't to judge the Tories by their efforts or by the obvious mistakes they have made, you live there and see it, I don't, but the numbers have to be presented in a manner that takes into account the population or else what are you comparing it to? Some countries have done much better during this pandemic, we need to learn from that for starters but so many countries have struggled with this through the mistakes made by the Government. The Tories/UK are not alone in deserving criticism for the way they have handled this nor is California above criticism even though they are one of the better ones out of a bad bunch of states.