baroness hallet, the chair of the inquiry, wants to get at the nub of what was going on at downing street making and the british government here during the time. yesterday for example we heard whatsapp messages from simon case, who was the cabinet secretary in essence, the top civil servant here at the time, talking about borisjohnson, how he was making the government look like a, quote, tragicjoke. that he couldn't make his mind up, and that in capital letters in one of the messages, this has to stop. you had a diary entry from sir patrick vallance, the chief scientific officer, saying that borisjohnson was weak and indecisive. so it all paints a bit of a picture, i think, and dominic cummings won't exactly be coming to his former boss's defence when he gives evidence. he has gone in already, lee cain has gonein has gone in already, lee cain has gone in as well and he will be giving evidence first, director of communications. that is significant not only because he was clearly right at the centre of things but also he was in charge of the messaging to the public, and honestly a lot has b

baroness hallet keen to stress this was about people, the real people who had suffered, but she said that there was a pressing need to get recommendations and conclusions from what had happened before, because she said it was a case of when not if there would be another pandemic. we have heard this morning from the lead counsel to the inquiry, hugo kyiv casey, who said the central questions of importance would be what about those decisions made in the run—up to the first lockdown, whether those decisions made were the right ones, whether a4 lockdown should have been called earlier and had that dog down been called earlier, with some of the more draconian measures have been different? in essence, had actions been taken earlier in the pandemic, but things be better later on? we have been hearing some interesting evidence that will be looked at later on during this hearing, a taste of it this morning and this is an inquiry that will go on for the next ten weeks. a flavour this morning of what we will hear. giee morning of what we will hear. give me a flavour _ morning of what we will he

we are with baroness hallet speaking. - are recalling witnesses, advisers, experts, scientists, politicianservants but i will hear from about 15 witnesses who will describe the suffering and problems faced by various groups during the pandemic. first i will hear from four representatives of bereaved families. they will be followed by experts from later life, children as young people, front line and key workers, sex and gender, disabled people, lgbtqi+ and long covid. their evidence will enable us to put the decision—making into context and help us to establish the extent to which decision—makers took into account the interest of such groups, and the impact on them when making their decisions. i know that some of their decisions. i know that some of the bereaved have campaigned for me to call more bereaved as witnesses during this inquiry. i understand their concerns. however, we simply do not have the time to call more witnesses. the need for me to reach conclusions and make recommendations to reduce suffering in the future, when the next pandemic hits the uk, is pressing. i say when the ne