COVID: The Year of Indecision

INSIDE BRIEFING with Institute for Government

A year on from Lockdown One, what have we learned – if anything – from the response to the once-in-a-century crisis of COVID? A new IfG paper identifies ten urgent lessons that government needs to learn. And if there is to be a Public Inquiry, what should it seek to discover? Plus, as the post-EU Transition Period ends, does the real Brexit start here? And what problems has the Government’s approach stored up? The Guardian’s Rafael Behr is our special guest. “Boris Johnson wanted to play the role of the happy-go-lucky leader and it just did not equip him for delivering the bad news and hard decisions that the crisis demanded.” – Rafael Behr “There’s a clichéd Yes Minister view that the Civil Service elite know better than operational systems on the ground… But the pandemic turned that on its head.” – Alex Thomas “I fear that the current Prime Minister will quickly seal off the disaster site, bulldoze the black boxes and claim it’s time to move on.” – Rafael Behr Presented by Bronwen Maddox with Maddy Thimont-Jack, Rhys Clyne and Alex Thomas. Audio production by Alex Rees. Inside Briefing is a Podmasters Production for the IfG. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.