Blaming Labour won't work this time – the Tories will have to own this crisis | Larry Elliott

Conservatives laid post-2008 damage at the opposition's door. This time they will be held accountable for how prepared Britain was

Throughout history, pandemics have often had profound economic effects. The most famous of all, the Black Death of the mid-14th century, wiped out between a third and two-fifths of the population of western Europe. The labour shortages that followed are credited with hastening the end of the feudal system.

Covid-19 is nowhere near as deadly as the Black Death, but the shock it has dealt to an already vulnerable global economy has been immense. Perhaps inevitably, there is talk of life never being the same again.