I find that both the BBC and FT are fairly shamelessly showing their anti U.K. bias, believing (ever since Brexit) that the U.K. have few resources and little competence.
There is scant mention of the fact that we, as a nation, are very strong at research, and could well end up being the country that produces the first vaccine or how well the U.K. is observing our lockdown, despite minimal reinforcement.
Our government certainly misstepped at first, and given that patient numbers were doubling every 2.5 days, this undoubtedly cost many lives. However, the NHS is coping (after a fashion) and our high (ish) death toll is far more a function of the average age of those infected (mid 60s, just like Italy) rather than our flawed and underfunded medical system.
It will be interesting to see the final outcome of case fatalities per capita and adjusted for age. I suspect that most 1st world nations will be pretty similar.
The breakdown of the EU structure, however, although touched upon, has been little highlighted. Italy is now broke and, to date, the richer northern countries have only offered a fraction of what they need to be bailed out. I suspect that, when we become less monofocused, a full blown Euro crisis will ensue (which will be awful for everyone, including the U.K.).
London, being such an international crossroad, was always going to be hit hard and so we were. However there is now evidence that London has peaked, with hospital admissions decreasing over the last couple of days (not conclusively yet).
I am not a fan of Panglossian optimism. However, I do feel that actively talking one’s own country down at a time of crisis is unpatriotic (which I suspect some will take as a compliment; it is not) and feeds back negatively into consumer confidence and, thus, the real economy,