"You'd need good regional data for this. The UK's regions are too large and critically have no devolved govt structures."
That's one of the problems with the UK, Misti being so heavily centralised
The national govt does most of the thinking and for several years now, that govt has been pretty thick.
There aren't adequate devolved structures to compensate, at least not in the English regions
NS for example, partly looks so competent because Westminster is so shambolic
I've been surprised how well the federal system in Germany has worked during this crisis,
with the 16 states each having their own elected leaders and Parliaments
Before, I expected that a serious threat within Germany would cause chaos with them pulling in 16 different directions.
Merkel has had to do some cat-herding, but it's been surprising how sensible the various leaders and main parties have been - so far ! -
and imo having to get such wide regional and political consensus has turned out to be a strength
Also, the technical competence of the 401 administrative districts, each with their own health officers, sounded a recipe for chaos,
but it has worked very efficiently, as they know their own patch so well.
The 200+ labs scattered around the country were amazingly quick to react to the crisis when called upon,
whereas one would expect the small number of UK super-labs to be more efficient
One weakness I do see here is the month-long delay in obtaining detailled national statistics,
a rare example of inefficiency,
because of the need to obtain and analyse data from so many sources
Germany needs to aim for the ONS standard
Better and faster data helps decision-making
The ONS is the one shining light where I'd say the UK fulfills BJ'S ambition to be a "world leader"
Hopefully that won't be cut back, or sold off to the USA for its data.....