I am interested to know what purpose testing will serve?

Remainers never waste an opportunity - it must be so difficult to be so bitter?

Was thinking exactly the same, pesky democracy.....

I'm baffled by the rising tide of "don't politicise this" nonsense; the Government, which has been in power for 10 years, is responsible for our readiness to deal with events like this, and what we do when it actually happens - and they have demonstrably failed on both, by any measure. Our NHS is woefully understaffed and underfunded, and we have the lowest number of ICU beds in history per head of population - amongst the lowest in the developed world. We have insufficient equipment and facilities to deal with a public health emergency, and insufficient medical professionals to look after us. We don't have enough police officers to manage our behaviour during a lockdown, and to top it off, our benefit system is so depleted that suddenly, middle class people who realise it should be a safety net and are turning to it for help, are up in arms because it is criminally slow, inefficient and doesn't provide enough for the basics of life.

This is 100% political, and the servile bootlicking of many people is what will guarantee that nothing much will change when it's all over.

Do tell us, oh wise one, how we should have prepared for a global pandemic?

Italy coping so much better, like France, Russia...... oh, hang on.

Perhaps if the Tories stuffed the NHS by having a pay freeze for 7 years ? and removing the bursaries which encouraged more people to come into the profession, there may have been a stronger workforce to START to deal with the pandemic.
Of course, no country in the world can be fully prepared for anything like this and for some countries, notably India, the thing hasn't yet begun to unfold.

However, there is absolutely no doubt that we could have been BETTER prepared.

I'm pleased that we are not the USA though, they still seem to be battling as to whether to have a lockdown in their major cities, which just isn't going to end well and I believe that given our starting position, there isn't much more that the government could be doing at this stage.

The worst aspect of all of this is that nobody and I mean nobody has any idea about an end game, which is just scary.
It may be something that we have to "live" with for many years to come.

Maybe by not hollowing out the NHS, closing 10's of 000's of beds, and leaving us with a chronic staffing crisis of Dr's and nurses; the same MP's standing on their doorsteps dishonestly 'clapping' NHS workers, stood in parliament not too long ago, cheering because they won a vote to cap their pay.

Of course it's fu**ing political, and no amount of obfuscation by Boris Johnson and his weird cabal of advisers can change the fact that the Tories have been in power for 10 years; this is on them.

so THE GOVERNMENT ELECTED BY THE MAJORITY caused a GLOBAL PANDEMIC? So, it is OUR fault. I can't wait until you and wrencat find the next thing to blame on politics.

That's not in any way what I said; which of course you know very well, but since you have nothing of any value to say on any subject, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

I bet you blamed Labour for the 2008 financial crash.