Some of the issues we have now goes back to before covid. Lack of funding the NHS - every winter just with regular flu the NHS is on its knees with ambulances queuing outside A&E; lack of funding the police - how are they supposed to enforce any restrictions when they don't have the manpower for their existing workload; lack of funding schools - large class sizes, old cramped schools with poor ventilation or even schools in old office blocks.
Clearly there were things we could have done. We're among the worst for deaths and the among the worst for economic performance. We're also an island and had plenty of warning so you could make a fair argument that we should be doing better than pretty much everyone.
Simply put we're not following the science, and we never really have. Even back when they did the simulation a few years ago, the things that were highlighted then were ignored and are the problems we have now. Most things that have come in have been down to public pressure rather than the government actually leading.
Again an issue here that predates covid. Our 'safety net' isn't fit for purpose. If you lose your job you're expected to live on £410 a month (although the government is planning a big cut to that early next year). Other countries already had systems in place so it was just a larger uptake of their usual system, and in some cases extending the schemes so people can stay on them for longer.
We had to start from nothing. That's why we had to rush in furlough, which was good I'll give you that but maybe could have been implemented better to ensure only companies that needed it could claim and there was some pressure to get people back in. The replacement system IMO will have very low take up and I suspect thats by design. Since it was announced the company I work for have already done two rounds of redundancy. They are all 'viable' jobs that will be needed in the future but why would they keep people on now when its going to cost them more than letting them go?