Having fallen short so badly in their handling of the coronavirus crisis, which has left the United Kingdom with one of the highest death rates from the disease in the world, Boris Johnson and his chief policy adviser, Dominic Cummings, cannot be trusted with the Herculean task ahead – the renewal of the United Kingdom and the rebuilding of its economy in the aftermath of the epidemic.

The disruptive and traumatic experience through which Britain is passing has no peacetime precedent, but two examples in the last century can offer useful guidance. In 1918 Lloyd George announced a radical platform which called for “homes fit for heroes”, and jobs likewise. After the Second World War the government led by Clement Attlee was inspired by the Beveridge Report to found the modern welfare state, together with the creation, in the same spirit, of the National Health Service and the implementation of the 1944 Education Act.