When Boris Johnson declares we have "defied so many predictions", he is talking nonsense. Britain is one of the worst hit countries on earth. Over 40,000 people have so far likely died, many thousands of them needlessly because of catastrophic decisions he is responsible for.

The British Government pursued a policy of herd immunity in which it intended to let the virus rip through the population. It failed on testing. It failed on PPE. It continues to let care homes be ravaged. A belated lockdown is suppressing infections, but it was belated.

Boris Johnson has also managed to manipulate most of the media with his plea for people to control their impatience. Who? Polls show no public impatience with the lockdown. He means Tory donors and MPs. And now he's presented by the media as a hardliner, his failures airbrushed.

History can't be airbrushed or revised. We had ample time to avoid Italy's fate and instead be more like Germany. We've ended up in a national catastrophe. It's the media's job to ensure that the government is held to account on the gravest issue of all: matters of life and death