What can former prime ministers teach us about the coronavirus crisis?

While Boris Johnson has just about managed to give the public reassurance, it is interesting that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown seem better able to express the government’s objectives than the current prime minister, says John Rentoul

Tony Blair speaking at King’s College London (Andy Lane)

As well as my work for The Independent, I help teach a class in contemporary history at King’s College London. On Monday, just before the country shut down, Tony Blair came to talk to our students about his time in government.

The first question from a student was what he would advise Boris Johnson to do about the coronavirus outbreak. “Move everything on to a war footing,” he said. “Government works in traditional ways with traditional processes; businesses operate according to traditional regulations. You’ve just got to put all that to one side. The whole sweep of government has just got to go on to dealing with one issue, because this is an issue which will have the most profound economic consequences as well as health consequences.”

Within moments, he was no longer saying what he would advise the current government to do; he was telling the class what he would do “if I was back in government”. He said: “You’ve got to reckon on the worst-case scenario. You’ve got to build enormous capacity at speed. And you have to communicate to the public in a way that they understand, and gives them confidence. Since always the worst thing about a crisis is people feeling that the leadership is not really quite in control or knowing what it’s doing.”