London is insisting on running the national coronavirus show, and it’s failing miserably

Editorial: Even now, the prime minister seems to be in denial that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have the right and the duty to make policy on this pandemic

Decisions about Leicester, Greater Manchester, Bradford and other places were communicated late at night from central government (Getty)

It is difficult to decide who should be more embarrassed by the revelation that the government has hatched a draconian contingency plan to seal off the whole of Greater London in the event of a second wave of Covid-19. Should it be Sadiq Khan, the elected mayor of London, responsible for the safety and prosperity of its citizens, who was, humiliatingly, at no point consulted about it? Or should it be Mr Khan’s predecessor, Boris Johnson, for an act of arrogance unseemly even by his own shameless standards?

Maybe everyone should be a bit red-faced about the way central government, local authorities and the devolved administrations have often worked so badly together during the crisis, though Mr Johnson’s government is supposedly running things.

London is hardly alone in being told what’s good for it. The mayor of Leicester, Sir Peter Soulsby and the leaders of the borough councils had little idea of the disaster unfolding in their areas because central government was so slow to share the local level microdata. Even when they did, which took too long, there was little further consultation on the relaxation of the local lockdowns. When decisions were made, late at night, about Leicester, Greater Manchester, Bradford and other places, they were communicated late at night by a combination of Matt Hancock standing in a street in the dark and a few sketchy tweets. Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, was one of the few figures to offer ministers public support; yet now he finds himself publicly pleading with them to protect those currently shielding.

The one lesson that might have been learned in recent weeks is that the implementation of public health policies, such as local lockdowns and test and tracing, is best conducted and run locally. The government has devolved more powers to local authorities to act; but Whitehall has not lost its habit of micromanaging and ignoring local politicians – overwhelmingly Labour or SNP. So partisan and possibly spiteful is this government that it seems to take inordinate pleasure in ignoring the very existence of anyone from another political party. It is not helping to save lives or protect the economy.

Even now, the prime minister seems to be in denial that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have the right and the duty to make policy on this pandemic. Mr Johnson hasn’t met the first minister of Scotland in a year, such is his contempt for devolution. His officials manipulate the bureaucracy of the public health system to bypass Holyrood and announce “four nations” policies, no doubt to the irritation of Ms Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford in Wales (Stormont seems more easy-going).

Mr Johnson’s childishness has done him and the cause of the union no good among the Scottish people. Much the same can be said of London, where, unless something very strange happens, Mr Khan can safely look forward to another term of office. Mr Khan hasn’t been invited to attend a Cobra meeting for 12 weeks, though Mr Johnson’s attendance isn’t much better. The established machinery for talks between London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, designed to help devolution work smoothly, is left in abeyance. The government doesn’t like devolution, so it is pretending it doesn’t exist. It is a foolish game.

There will no doubt be more confusion and friction as the lockdown is reimposed and Brexit, flu and (perhaps) flooding add to the pressures on the British state. Even in good times it is a bad idea to try to run everything from Downing Street. With a quadruple whammy set to hit the country in the coming months – coronavirus 2, flu, floods, a no-deal Brexit – Mr Johnson will find himself presiding over the kind of wintry chaos last experienced in the 1970s, such as the three-day week in 1973-74, and the winter of discontent in 1978-79. Only worse. In both cases the government lost power within months.