Rishi Sunak had a great day yesterday. No hard-hats in Birmingham, no ice creams in Rochdale, pints of real ale in Norfolk, just a Covid Inquiry in hell. And whilst he was there, being grilled by a bunch of silks, his political party was busy in Westminster plotting to de-rail either him or his make-or-break Rwanda bill which gets a vote in parliament today. One way or t’other…

But the Inquiry first. In which our now Prime Minister had to defend his actions three years ago, when he was chancellor, as he and his hapless, hopeless mates in then government steered us, like the blind leading the blind, but drunk, through the minefield of the pandemic. Led by Boris, the man you’d want on your side for the Eton Wall Game, but not necessarily in time of crisis, and certainly not in charge, Rishi and Dominic (God help us) and Matt Hancock (God may not be enough for that one), the ‘dream team’, consulted with scientists and told us every day which guesses would now be followed until the next stab in the dark.

Rishi’s own bete noir is the ‘eat out to help out’ scheme in which the government bought us dinner if we were brave enough to take the pretty high risk of getting covid over our chicken tikka masala. We sat in restaurants which had make shift plastic partitions between the tables and sanitised our hands before stuffing donner kebabs into our unmasked faces. It was, all things considered, from a purely health perspective, stupid.

But the pandemic caused over 10% of the hospitality industry out of business. Pubs, restaurants, bars, clubs, hotels, simply couldn’t be sustained with absolutely no income. Rishi was the chancellor. The man in charge of the economy. Not a fucking doctor of virology. Who he might have consulted, possibly, BEFORE, his little scheme, but apparently didn’t. But what did they know anyway? And there’s no point the nation surviving a pandemic and being totally bankrupt with 97% of people subsequently unemployed or clinically depressed, with a next generation condemned even more to ‘zombie’ status than they’re already going to be from when they get their first phone.

The pandemic caused deaths, we know that, it was always going to happen. And we’re always clever in hindsight. Which seems to be the sole purpose of this (and most other) inquiries. To squander public funds achieving nothing whatsoever. The covid ‘balance’ was limiting the number dying; it was never going to be zero, whilst trying to have something left in the national budged when its over, whilst remembering that locking people down is contrary to all of human nature.

Sitting in a courtroom 3 years later, its much easier to be ‘clever’.

Ok, Rwanda another day. Today decides a lot about its future. And Rishi’s.

Happy Tuesday, Rishi,

A xxxx