Bob Pape was a beloved father and foster carer. Did ‘eat out to help out’ cost him his life?

This is sad, but also very calm in the way it analyses what the government got so wrong after the first lockdown.

As I noted yesterday, our emergence from this lockdown is a lot different, which is probably evidence enough that the government knows absurd schemes such as Eat Out to Help Out, fronted by a young, healthy, maskless chancellor, caused more deaths and actually harmed the economy. We ended up back in lockdown twice, extending state business support and the furlough scheme.

Which branch of conservatism was to blame? The roll-up-your-sleeves, ignore the experts and get-on-with-it strand we saw in Brexit, or the-market-is-everything, let-the-virus-take-its-natural-course argument expounded by the COVID Recovery Group?