SIR - The track record of Boris Johnson and his government in tackling the Covid pandemic has been appalling. There has been a consistent failure of “too little...too late”.

We are now stuck with a four week national lockdown that, given sharper action taken earlier, might have been unnecessary now.

England could have locked down in late February or early March (all the signs were there) but lock-down was delayed until March 23, almost certainly resulting in 20,000 more deaths than would have been the case if the same action had been taken three weeks earlier.

The government has sought to balance the needs of industry and commerce on the one hand and public health on the other. But there is no trade off - no “middle way”.

In late September the SAGE advisers recommended five courses of action. In an attempt to keep the economy going - and placate Tory back-bench MPs - the cabinet chose to enact just one of the five. If all five had been pursued immediately and with vigour we would have been in a far better place than we are now.

Increasingly the public are twigging - this government is an incompetent disgrace.

John Cole, Oakroyd Terrace, Baildon