IT is difficult to find forgiveness for somebody continually making bad decisions at every turn. Difficult but not impossible.

Given the unprecedented nature of the Covid-19 crisis, the Tory government could perhaps be forgiven for the catalogue of bad decisions it has made, mistakes on pandemic pre-planning, on border restrictions, on testing, on PPE, on timely lockdown, on protecting care homes, on maintaining test and trace, on data management.

This last sees the likes of the Echo faithfully reporting Public Health England data showing 155 Covid-19 hospital deaths (‘No Deaths for Three Weeks’, Echo July 7) but which bear no relation to the more-complete data published by the Office of National Statistics.

As published July 4, the ONS data shows the most recent recorded hospital death in the week ending 29 June.

Read today's other letters

For all locations including care homes, the total is running at 345 across BCP and Dorset council areas.

The unprecedented nature of the Covid-19 crisis will inevitably lead to mistakes and bad decisions.

However, what makes the Tory government’s record unforgivable is its continual denial that any of it is ever their fault. And if that isn’t enough, in trying to convince us of their ‘world-beating’ performances, they end up making even more mistakes.

DR MARTIN RODGER

Bloxworth Road, Parkstone