Your entirely right when you say it's a new virus and nobody knows the best way to deal with it TV but that's all the more reason UKGov should've been using the outbreak data from China, Italy etc. as a baseline and started to implement the necessary preventative policies sooner to prevent/minimise such a situation occurring here.
Their rationale and reasoning is only plausible if it's backed up by the facts/science/data and it was backed up by neither of these. They ignored the facts, they ignored the science and they ignored the data and set off down a path that NO other country on the planet was reckless enough to take.
They pushed the dangerously irresponsible and unscientific approach of 'herd immunity' that was met by open mouthed horror from not just those in China, Italy etc. who have seen the horror of this first hand but by the World Health Organisation and almost all from the scientific and medical communities both here and abroad. The reasons for that? Well the Sunday Times (a Tory paper) ran this today......
I see where you're coming from too TV. I appreciate that your trying to be pragmatic and give them the benefit of the doubt as we're not only in the midst of a crisis but also in completely unknown territory when it comes to this BUT they've known about the potential dire consequences of this virus for far longer than they've let on and not only have they failed to prepare for what they knew was coming during that time (there are nurses in the NHS currently having to wear bin bags as protective gear) but they've also failed to listen and be led by the science or take heed of the lessons that other countries have had to learn the hard way......and if that Sunday Times article is accurate then they don't have the excuse of 'incompetency' to fall back on for their hubris.
Take care mate, hope you and all the family are well and come through the other side of this unscathed. HH