Coronavirus: A disastrous year which is destined to end in triumph, hopefully

That's the sort of cliched thing you're tempted to say on the grim anniversary of the Covid crisis.

Maybe it has flown by for you. But for me it's dragged. Not only has it dragged, but the pre-coronavirus time seems so distant that it's almost like it was another era.

Boris Johnson went on the television on March 23, 2020, to announce lockdown. Far, far, too late of course. That's what many said – much later.

At the time it was a pretty nuclear step. My memory is that there had been some talk that it might be a possibility for London, and even that sounded drastic. There had been few Covid deaths – the first in Shropshire had been just over a week previously.

When I was out and about on journalistic duties there was a distinct sense among a significant number of people that it was all over the top, and why were we getting so worked up about something that was just flu with knobs on.

So personally I did not take it for granted that ordinary people would take any notice of the Government ordering them to Stay Home, Protect The NHS, Save Lives. It would work in Communist China, but here in Britain? Free, libertarian, dynamic, 21st century Britain, with citizens of independent spirit and not used to being told what to do by an authoritarian regime.

It wasn't as if there was a war on, was it?

That then was one big revelation. British people overwhelmingly complied. I don't think it is over-egging the pudding to say that the spirit that carried Britons through the Blitz was demonstrated in the very different context of a global pandemic.

It wasn't a case of "business as usual" as we see in the old newsreels, but people were looking out for each other and unified in the face of a common enemy.

That first lockdown was an extraordinary moment in history. Skies were cleared, roads were emptied, and town and city centres were deserted. Things were so quiet that even the Llandudno goats were emboldened to make a visit to Llandudno.

It hasn't been anything like the same in the second lockdown.

Then there has been the Government's response, which has been equally extraordinary. Fiscal restraint has gone out of the window. When a Tory Chancellor of the Exchequer is a big spender and boasts about it, you know you are living in strange times.

In the background and in the foreground is the terrible toll of coronavirus. At the start that Government boffin talked about 20,000 deaths being a good result. By any measure over 120,000 deaths is a very bad result. Why Britain has one of the highest death rates in the world is not a mystery at all to those who blame the Government and say it was too slow to act.

There again, Britain's response has not been that different to that of some countries which have not been so badly hit. So there are puzzling aspects which science will perhaps explain in time.

This is a story of disaster which is, crossed fingers, destined to end in triumph. The National Health Service has buckled but has withstood the worst storm in its history. The vaccination programme in the UK has been an astonishing success.

If every generation has something to test its mettle, Covid-19 was the test of this generation.

A lot has gone wrong. The cost in lives, livelihoods, and economic vitality, has been grievous.

The past year has in many ways been a bad memory. But the good memory is how the nation pulled together to pull through.