Fair points but why did we waste money on getting reports to just ignore it all? Under funding of essential services have made the matter worse and this Government has consistently taken steps to cut funding. We shouldn’t be making excuses for them. Alas, I think we’re at the point of going round in circles.
Agreed on all counts, with the distinction that pointing out the limit of their powers and responsibilities in specific areas is not making excuses, but rather allows us to focus in on what they are incontrovertibly responsible for, which in turn should have more of an impact.
I imagine even the majority of Tory voters agree that they are responsible for the deep cuts in essential services which has had all kinds of ripple effects throughout the pandemic, most notably the frequency with which the healthcare system is pushed to the limit, which naturally dictates the frequency of which we're forced into some stage of quarantine as well as the volume of poor health outcomes. It's hugely influential and plain to see. They might blame Labour for putting them in the position where they had to make those cuts and lead you up the garden path, but I imagine that would be a minority.
So it's better to focus our attention on that than on the limitations of the contact tracing system, as the essential limitations being discussed would have applied irrespective of who was in charge, as demonstrated by the fact it has happened all over the world regardless of who was in charge. Alternatively we're better at focusing on the corruption that existed in the test & trace progam, which again I think the vast majority of the population regardless of political affiliation would consider disgusting, especially while people are struggling to put food on the table.
There is very little about this government I think is worth defending, with the notable exception of the furlough scheme. Assessing the context in which decisions were made and the role that context had on the outcomes we're interested in is not making excuses for them, regardless of whether that assessment ends up being helpful or hurtful to the attempts to criticise the government on that issue. It's allowing us to determine what we should and should not spend our time talking about, when there's no shortage of things we could otherwise be focusing on.