A thread: I had a chat on the phone with my brother today. He lives in Singapore and was heading out for dinner at a restaurant with some friends.

To date, 29 people have died from covid in Singapore. Now they're rolling out the vaccine, and the economy is up and running.

Yes, Singapore has a relatively authoritarian political system. Yes, it's a small country. But it does have a population larger than that of Norway, crammed onto an island the size of the Isle of Wight. It also has an ageing population and a high obesity rate.

Crucially it has something in common with every other country that has handled the pandemic well. It followed the advice of experts. It didn't battle them to save Christmas. It didn't do eat out to help out. It didn't hum and haw about taking it on the chin.

It locked down hard, it locked down early. It closed the airports. It implemented a proper test and trace system. It implemented a proper quarantine system. It paid people to self-isolate. It made masks mandatory immediately. It made some awful mistakes and learnt from them.

Not only has Boris Johnson not done everything he could, he has catastrophically failed the British people, and 100,000 of us are now dead. Our mad, conservative newspapers continue to kiss his boots. And apparently more of us would vote for him than any other party. I despair...