The citizens of these beleaguered countries seem quite happy with the government management thus far[1]. I honestly don't know how anyone can look at the UK response thus far and think - more of that please!
[1] https://twitter.com/BritainElects/status/1355606835873669126
There's been very little in the way of real opposition, sadly. For instance, when the Tories do make actual fuckups Labour usually resort to off-topic complaints about idpol so the Tories just do whatever they want with no push back.
(I'm from the North, this is the general sentiment in my local community. More stringent lockdown policy is also incredibly unpopular here.)
We are up for election mid-March, the ruling party and PM will be re-elected.
The populace will not 'take chances' during crises.
Even Keir Starmer seems content to sit back and only critise the Government's response the day or days after a grim milestone/but of news.
Why isn't he constantly saying that the UK should totally shut their borders, for example? He should be saying this and nothing else, and directing the rest of Labour to do the same. That's how an effective opposition works.
Instead he generally chooses silence.
UK is 2.5x the population of Australia and has 136x the number of deaths.
You have to make some sacrifices to win the battle, but it seems we've paid a lot of the price (in terms of economic costs as well as deaths), but without the positives that should have come from that. As soon as there's any sign of let-up in any of the statistics, it seems the government wants to remove the measures, which seems to be a bad idea to me, but I'm a chump who's not making the decisions!
* PPE sourcing has been poor.
* Track and trace has been poor, and for the money they spent should have been far better.
* Lockdowns have been too leaky, and too late.
* But the vaccination research and rollout has been excellent.
The high UK death toll is only partly due to the above mediocrities, and mainly due to factors that cannot be pinned on the government:
* A very highly internationally mobile population that seeded infections everywhere in the country.
* A very highly internally mobile population that spread infections everywhere in the country.
* A very high density population
* Little experience of pandemic management and limited pre-existing testing capacity
* No culture of mask wearing
* A higher than average aged population
* A higher than average obese population
* Higher percentage of ethnic minority individuals who have been more susceptible to the disease, even after adjusting for health and income inequalities.
* More northerly climate with colder temperatures and higher rates of vitamin D deficiency
* Lower public tolerance for restrictions on movement
* Insufficient police numbers to enforce lockdown policies
No SINGLE cause from the lists above explain the UK's high death rate. It's a perfect storm of all of them.