Rishi Sunak’s lockdown support plans were flawed from the start. Let’s hope he is learning from his mistakes

Editorial: Has the Treasury just caught up with its own errors and the reality of a foreseen crisis?

The chancellor visits a bar to mark the launch of his new business support scheme (The Independent)

So what changed, Rishi? It is an intriguing question. To be more precise, why is it that the package of support for hard-pressed families under tier 2 restrictions is deemed sufficient one day, but not the next?

After all, the flaws in Rishi Sunak’s post-furlough support programme were evident from the beginning. There was, anyway, the probability that a second wave of Covid-19 would arrive, such is the very nature of pandemics.  

Given the failure of test and trace system, it was equally on the cards that the second wave would have predictable effects on public health and the economy. So the package should have been more generous in the first place, rather than predicated on the crisis subsiding. The government’s public health advisers have made it abundantly clear this will be a long haul.