Turns out PPE was in the sky all along – it was just headed in the wrong direction

UK firms have bombarded the government with offers of masks, gowns and gloves. When our shambolic government didn't take them up on it, many were forced to export their stocks, writes Matthew Norman

Tuesday 21 April 2020 18:37 BST
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Matt Hancock claims he doesn't have a magic wand to get all the equipment the NHS needs
Matt Hancock claims he doesn't have a magic wand to get all the equipment the NHS needs

If you trust in the equation that comedy equals tragedy and time, one day someone will make a funny film about the PPE fiasco of 2020.

Obviously, it won’t be any time soon. For the next 80 years, the living will be around to remember those who died. Add another two decades for good taste, and Carry On Falling Like Flies For The Want Of A Gown will debut on whatever has replaced Netflix.

But even while this country is being drenched by this cascade of needless casualties, the details have the flavour of farce. You know, the kind that might belong to one of those black-and-white flicks about Whitehall that rolled off the studio production lines in the 1950s, invariably starring Richard Wattis, and sometimes Terry-Thomas (both appear in Carlton-Browne of the FO, a pleasantly pallid twist on Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop). Yet even these twin paradigms of governmental mismanagement look masterful compared with the sorry bunch running the show today.

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