There will be those who say that this isn't the time for posts like this, as for the moment we must all do what is required to help others and help society get through this crisis.
However, sitting in a school full of fearful, tearful children, my overriding feeling is one of anger.
When all this is over and life returns to normal - and it will, whatever normal looks like at that time - there are a few things that need to be remembered.
Very few people have been possessed of the full facts of this pandemic from the beginning, and members of the public have undoubtedly been complacent in their response, but this crisis ultimately falls at the door of government. From the outset, ministers will have been briefed about the truth of the situation in China, the situation in Italy, the mounting situation in Spain and France, and now the death toll is growing in the UK at an alarming rate.
There were opportunities to act, and at every turn, our leaders chose inaction. How long were flights allowed to continue from mainland China into Europe at the start of the epidemic? How many flights per day were permitted to fly between Italian and UK airports, long after Italy had reached crisis point? How long after the scale of the pandemic became apparent did our leaders sit on their hands and allow mass gatherings to take place? As I sit here now, with the storm clouds building, I can STILL choose to go and meet friends in a pub - I am just advised not to. How long did teachers beg the government to close schools to halt the spread? The WHO has been screaming the answers at our leaders for months now. The inaction has been suicidal.
We must all do what we can to surmount the biggest challenge of our generation. We will, from Monday, act as a childcare centre for the children of key workers, and school kitchens will be used to provide crisis care. Our teachers will continue to work long into the night planning online delivery of the curriculum and marking work in order to shield our young people from this disaster as much as we can, and to provide them with some semblance of normality and structure in this new reality.
But when this is all done, when the dead have been buried and mourned, when we are able to hold our families tight and greet them with a loving kiss, there will be a reckoning. I am writing this now in case I am not able to write it then. When that reckoning comes, remember this.
They KNEW. And they CHOSE not to act.
