Every so often, it’s worth having a look at this table…

OK, I know that countries have very different ways of reporting deaths from Covid-19.

But this table, from Worldometer (excluding a couple of micro-states), gives us some idea how the UK is doing in terms of Covid-19 deaths per million of population.

Badly.

We are second in the world for the rate of deaths, after Belgium.

We are mush worse than the USA, and well over six times worse than Germany.

Yes, factors such as ageing and poverty demographics need to be taken into account.

But we are well ahead of many comparable countries. For example, our death rate is 43% higher than France.

It shows that we do, indeed, need a fast, nimble-footed enquiry to learn lessons and put things right before the feared second wave in the autumn.

What is absolutely staggering is that in 2019, an international study found that the UK was the second-best pandemic-prepared country in the world.

So what on earth happened between 2019 and 2020?

* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist. He is one of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.