So the list of government errors so far seems to be:
1/ failure to gather right intelligence to realize early enough that this was going to transmit to us. [Contrast nearer territories like SK, HK, Taiwan.]
2/ failure to conceive of a pandemic risk on remotely this scale; or to provide for and store correctly appropriate PPE.
3/ failure to challenge initial advice that lockdown too early would be damaging because it would not be tolerated too long.
4/ thus failure to adopt in Ferguson's words 'suppression' [lockdown followed by test trace] rather than simply 'mitigate' early enough.
5/ failure to protect patients involved in the freeing up of hospital beds and transfer to care homes.
6/ failure to adhere to appropriate social distancing in government ['i shook everyone's hand'] leading to infection of senior government members and advisors, risking implosion of government effort and national confidence.
7/ failure to procure adequate PPE for hospital and care home staff.
8/ failed govt scheme to design and build new ventilators.
9/ [dishonesty over UK invitation to join EU procurement efforts; failure to set aside nationalist ideology for pragmatic healthcare reasons].
10/ failure to build testing capacity to the point even where hospital and care home staff were protected; complete failure to mount a test/trace/isolate scheme.
11/ dishonesty and arbitrariness in setting of the testing target; the surge to 100k, inclusion of posted but not competed test kits.
12/ failure in the design of the lockdown release strategy to link it to test and trace.
13/ major communications failures in the release of the lockdown; disinformation in pre-announcement anonymous briefings to newspapers; meaningless instruction to 'stay alert'.
Failure to lockdown early enough was initially the most consequential; but we are about [I predict] to see what happens when we release lockdown in the absence of anything to replace it.
Did I miss anything out?
Oh failure to deal honestly with international comparisons; early comments that 'other countries are taking populist measures not backed by science'; failure to compare like statistics with like across countries. To acknowledge where lessons can be learned from abroad.
Not counting the failure of our version of capitalism generally to fail to match market value to social value of some services during emergencies leaving us less resilient, as not fair to lay the blame for that at this govt's door.
After some excellent replies, the list [already long but don't shoot the messenger bearing a long message] needs expanding and revising.
There was an initial failure to be honest and clear about the initial strategy of 'herd immunity'. The phrase escaped into publilc domain almost by accident, was repeated several times, then the govt denied, falsely at the time, that this was the strategy.
The failure to set aside nationalist projects to deal with this has more facets than I pointed out above. There was the initial failure in derailing NHS risk-register, pandemic preparation with preparation for a no deal Brexit....
...And an ongoing failure to ask for an extension to the transition period, more startling still as interruptions to critical food and medical supply and other supply chains while we are still fighting the pandemic is... words fail me at this point.
Another replier points out the failure to agree a common approach to the release of the lockdown across the union. Wales, Scotland and NI are not changing their advice. Is this a failure?
There could be a prima facie case for territory specific approaches, as covid19 has not and may not evolve evenly across the UK. It might mean the end of the single market for goods and people for the duration, until a vaccine. Or periods of interruption in it at least.
But this was not agreed with other territories by the govt or pressed on with on a rational basis [eg such a basis might be 'things are better in England so let's just start relaxing...'].
Done like this, the approach injects confusion, undermines the lockdowns of the UK nations.
We have to add another suspected failure, which is the failure to insulate the design of the lockdown from purely politial concerns coming from lockdown-sceptic Tory MPs. There are at least 3 pieces of evidence that this is what might be going on.
a) They didn't want to be vetoed by other UK nations, and needed to so something for some English MPs. b) The release of the lockdown is not rationally connected to test and trace capacity projections; therefore more reasonably just a compromise with the lockdown sceptics...
c) The lockdown sceptics have been relentless in the media, so there is ample circumstantial evidence that they are a thing with influence and sway.
Another replier reminds me of the failure to adhere to proper governance over SAGE. Lying about 'we are just following the science', concealing Cummings' attendance, lying that he was just an observer when he was, evidently, an active participant.
IMO one can reasonably differ about exactly how in govt one manages the generation, challenge of expert advice and the action following from it. Real failure here is the mendacity of claiming it was independent when it was not entirely.
I've stopped using numbers in case one of the late tweets gets seen in isolation and people lose heart, or presume I have the Seth Abramson affliction.
A few added by @PeteHusky [see replies above]. To recap. Failure to lockdown tightly enough to reduce cases and deaths fast enough. More arguable as ex ante it's hard to know combination of private and regulated distancing needed. See Sweden, for example.
Failure to lockdown for long enough. Even if there were test and trace capacity, it surely would not be the right time to start with the case load and flow of new deaths this high.
And oh yes the contact tracing app failures, still ongoing. That probably needs a thread all of its own.
Reminded by @judithmknott of the failures around Johnson's own experience of the virus. Raab and others indulging in medically false speculation about how his energy and spirit would see him through, perhaps shedding light on how some of the other failures came about.
On less secure territory here, but the mentality of British exceptionalism [come on how bad can this be, the Blitz!], and perhaps even a particular kind of British male [real men don't get beaten by a virus] might have contributed.
One reply points out the failure to mandate mask wearing; hiding behind equivocation about the benefits when the real reason was worries about supplies to the NHS.
