Tory split on coronavirus has seen off any joined-up strategy | Phillip Inman

The battle between Treasury and health department has doomed us to a succession of contradictory gambits - and a long, hard winter

It would help if the cabinet could agree. Yet for the past seven months it has remained deeply divided, squabbling over the scientific advice and what Covid-19 might mean for the nation's health and jobs.

Britons have become familiar with a bewildering, almost weekly stream of tactical policies, twisting this way and that, many of them in direct opposition to each other.

It is not hard to see that without financial protection in place for those affected, the virus will continue to spread