// But this question is not really about that. It is simply another opportunity to pour scorn on to the Conservatives. As I said, they were unlucky. //
Unlucky indeed, although somehow many at the time used it to bash the performance of a hypothetical Corbyn Government. For my part, I'd prefer to "bash" that over its likely response to the Ukraine crisis, which would almost surely have been a shadow of the current one.
But I did want to comment on the issue about this being an excuse to pour scorn on the Conservatives. Firstly, I am sure it's true from some people, but whatever, I can't be responsible for that. But mainly it seems that this is prompting Tory infighting. It's notable that Johnson seems determined to fully cooperate, or at least be seen as fully cooperating, with the public enquiry, and has openly criticised or undermined the Government's approach. So there are also clearly internal Tory dynamics at play here -- not a particularly brilliant bit of insight on my part I confess, but I do wonder what's going on, and what Johnson's motivations are.
In any case, public enquiries aren't really about apportioning blame, but abut improving for next time. The UK's pandemic response was, prior to Covid, held to be world-leading (and not just by the UK either). It would be nice, surely, to be able to claim that prestigious title again and *mean* it this time.