Parliament’s security experts slate British government pandemic planning
For the past few months, a British group has campaigned for an emergency judge-led inquiry into the pandemic. Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK has not got very far: nothing has been offered beyond the promise of an inquiry at some time in the future. Now, though, a parliamentary report has been published which goes some way towards that aim. It comes from the rather grandly named Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy and is called ‘ Biosecurity and National Security ’. Because of its focus, the committee concentrates on the government’s preparedness for a pandemic, so it says little about the detailed handling, including the outsourcing , creeping privatisation , chumocracy and all the other criticisms, but it is still a remarkable document on two counts. The first is summarised in Friday’s 18th of December press release announcing the publication of the report, which was headed ‘ Government failed to act on its security plans for a pandemic ’. Just quoti