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I though this video (just a three minute edit of his full interview) was very interesting from the former head of the Civil Service.
There's much more in the link below to the BBC interview by Laura Kuenssberg whose own summary I post in full below -
In his first interview since leaving one of the biggest jobs in the country, the man who was paid to give quiet careful advice is diplomatic with his language, certainly, but clear nonetheless.
While he takes pride in some of the government's response to the pandemic, he said there is a genuine question about whether it could have been better prepared and admitted it lacked the "exact measures" for a disease of this kind.
The picture he gives of the heart of government in the most intense moments in the crisis is of a tense place, where ministers and officials were scrambling to keep up with a changing reality where the nation's health and economy were both genuinely in danger.
And frankly, with all the uncertainty of handling a new disease, no-one could be quite sure of the right thing to do.
For all that ministers have fumed privately, and hinted publicly, he is adamant that the government coped fairly well during a once in a generation crisis, not withstanding "genuine questions" about just how prepared the UK really was.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-54617148
There's much more in the link below to the BBC interview by Laura Kuenssberg whose own summary I post in full below -
In his first interview since leaving one of the biggest jobs in the country, the man who was paid to give quiet careful advice is diplomatic with his language, certainly, but clear nonetheless.
While he takes pride in some of the government's response to the pandemic, he said there is a genuine question about whether it could have been better prepared and admitted it lacked the "exact measures" for a disease of this kind.
The picture he gives of the heart of government in the most intense moments in the crisis is of a tense place, where ministers and officials were scrambling to keep up with a changing reality where the nation's health and economy were both genuinely in danger.
And frankly, with all the uncertainty of handling a new disease, no-one could be quite sure of the right thing to do.
For all that ministers have fumed privately, and hinted publicly, he is adamant that the government coped fairly well during a once in a generation crisis, not withstanding "genuine questions" about just how prepared the UK really was.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-54617148