The health secretary wrote off £13bn of NHS debt, promised 100,000 tests and acted like a grownup

For much of the week, it’s been as if the government has gone out of its way to appear wilfully clueless. First, the psychotically unstable Dominic Raab, then the pathologically untrustworthy Michael Gove, culminating with the shambolically underprepared Alok Sharma. History repeating itself first as tragedy, then as farce. It was as if the only real contingency plans the government had made were for the postponement of this year’s climate change conference. Sometimes, doing absolutely nothing proves to be entirely the right option.

But cometh the hour … There are some words I thought I’d never write. Like “Thank God for Matt Hancock”. But thank God for Matt Hancock. It seemed a high-risk strategy to send out the health secretary for the daily Downing Street press conference as it was only six days since he announced that he had contracted coronavirus. And the official NHS guidance is for anyone with symptoms to self-isolate for a week.