I've pinched the Waugh Zone headline because I don't think I can put it any better.
When politicians appear to defend the bureaucracy of a system rather than the needs of the public, they can sound tone deaf. When that defence involves matters of life and death, they risk coming across as robotic at best, callous at worst.
We have just seen the Government challenged, and thankfully six MPs have voted against plans to cut the Universal Credit £20 per week uplift. This is a non-binding vote but has, at least, shown some Tories have a conscience.
However, there still test and, 'if we've got time', trace. Dido Harding expects 90% of the massive £22bn budget would go on testing, not tracing. And the bulk of the new tests would be lateral flow tests and, we are told, that 900 staff from consultants Deloitte are working for Test and Trace, at an average cost of £1,000 a day.
As well as stopping the £20 a week uplift, which we now know makes even some Tory MPs uncomfortable, Sunak surely has to face the issue of people not self-isolating because of money worries.
Large numbers of low paid or self employed are not covered by the £500 payment and yet, knowing many of these people may then feel they have to work, no one has attempted to solve this - so the spreading continues for the want of £500. The horse shoe nail of the pandemic.
