1 Top of the head thoughts. Many think #Covid_19 is equivalent of a wartime crisis so why not wartime measures In both WW1 & WW2 UK govts in charge at outset proved incapable of the task & were replaced by coalitions under a different PM. Same applies now. Same should happen now

2 Who would be PM? Given numbers would have to be a Tory but one who'd be acceptable to other parties. Christ knows who that would be from the current Cabinet. Starmer would become deputy PM

3 Sturgeon, Drakeford & Foster should be invited to join smaller inner or 'war' cabinet focused entirely on the matter at hand. If Smuts could be in WW1 war cabinet no reason not to have Scots, Welsh & NI leaders on board now

4 Needs to be a big figure directly in charge of health. Hancock not up to task. In WW1 Lloyd George became munitions minister. In WW2 Beaverbrook in charge of aircraft production. Can't claim to know who fits the bill now but Hancock certainly doesn't

5 A 'unity' govt would help foster sense of unity in struggle. Needs to be acceptance this is the long haul and things won't be the same again. There was no return to life as it was in 1913 or 1938. Same now. 2019's gone & we need to prepare for the future

6 Plain speaking needed. Stop/start is going to continue for a long time. There may be no vaccine round the corner & if there is it may be less effective than hoped for. There may never be a vaccine. There is no magic bullet

7 Costs. Whatever happened to 'whatever it takes?' in wartime government didn't consider whether or not it could be afforded but what needed to be done.

8 Imagine thinking 'have you seen the price of a bloody Spitfire?' as one of the prime considerations. 'Nazis are going to invade anyway. Might as well get it over and done with'

9 The outcome is unpredictable. Don't pretend we know for certain what's going to come after. No one went into WW1 with the express intention of destruction of four empires & the Russian Revolution or WW2 to create nuclear weapons

10 Some aspects of life may be better afterwards. There was no welfare state or NHS on the horizon in 1939. Social care is the obvious comparison now.

11 The main things are not to pretend we know the outcome, not to think the vaccine cavalry is on the way (the equivalent of WW1 being 'over by Xmas´) & acceptance that the world of 2019 is gone & not coming back.

12 Just as surely though we CAN be certain that the evidence of the past few months is that the current government isn't up to the task. Nor for that matter is the one in Holyrood. They had the summer breathing space & failed to use it to prepare for autumn & winter

13 This failure is unacceptable and mistakes that happen twice are more likely to happen a third time than not. Especially if the same people are in charge.

14 It's not a matter of party politics. Personally I would rather crawl naked over broken glass backwards with a razor blade up my arse than vote Tory or nationalist but they were the governments in charge & I desperately wanted them to succeed

15 Only a pathological idiot would actively WANT a government to fail in the face of this crisis. Covid doesn't give a fuck where you place your cross on a ballot paper.

16 But fail they have. & there is no sign they won't continue to do so. A combination of failure to learn from mistakes, hypocrisy in approach & in the case of Westminster at least rank incompetence has brought us to where we are today, facing the most perilous winter in 80 years

17 IMO the only way out of this is to start afresh. That means new measures to buy us some time. It means new leadership & a new approach. It means unity of purpose. Sadly it means accepting worse is to come.

18 It also means belief that this too shall pass but without spreading false optimism. 'Covid free Scotland by end of summer' is another 'war over by Xmas' 'World-beating' test & trace is Trumpism minus the orange make-up

19 Leaders need to tell the fucking truth. We are in a worldwide fight. We don't know for how long it will last & under what - constantly changing - conditions we will have to live until it's over

20 Just as it won't be the same as before once it's over we shouldn't be thinking of either sunlit uplands or Mad Max as the inevitable outcome. We don't know. So many certainties have blown up in our faces

21 For instance I've been a lifelong advocate of cheap, efficient public transport all my life. Now I have no idea when I'll have the confidence to board a train again. Homeworkers won't necessarily rush back to the office.

22 The consequences for public transport & city centre hospitality to name but two may well drastically and permanently alter with devastating effects on jobs & livelihoods

23 Will there be a rush back to sports grounds, cinemas & theatres or will people be too scared to enter? No one, not a single person on this planet, can say with certainty one way or the other

24 IMO above all we need to accept the worst may yet be to come but once it's over we pull together to make things better than before. That's a hope, not a belief. A lifetime's experience of being on the losing side too often precludes optimism. But hope remains. Rant over.