SIR - A recent edition of The Times had the headline 'Get Britain Back to Work' Senior Tories Tell Johnson.

That is easier said than done and would be a great deal easier if Johnson in particular and his government had not handled the Covid crisis so incompetently.

What our Prime Minister is reaping are the consequences of, among other things, his failure to lockdown earlier.

In an effort to get an overview of how the pandemic has been handled I put together a “charge sheet” of how history might in future assess the culpability of this government. It runs to 22 charges, an important early one being the failure to take Covid seriously. (Quiz question for 30 years hence: “Name the Prime Minister who chose to miss the first five COBRA meetings relating to Covid”)

You do not beat a pandemic by attempting to tough it out with ill-based optimism, bluff and bluster. The coronavirus has no respect for English exceptionalism. Marginalising local authorities with their well-established links into local public health in order to favour private sector partners is ideology getting in the way of success.

History will conclude that this government has blood on its hands

John Cole, Oakroyd Terrace Baildon