On different planets: how Germany tackled the pandemic, and Britain flailed | Martin Kettle

From health spending to test and trace, the German response to coronavirus has many lessons for the UK. Can we learn them?

Rest assured that this is a column about politics, not football. Nevertheless the most resonant political insight of the week has come from Liverpool’s manager Jürgen Klopp, who has guided his team to the threshold of winning the Premier League. On the eve of the resumed 2019-20 football season, Liverpool’s German coach was asked last weekend whether he had ever worried about the dangers of the Covid-19 pandemic to the completion of the season. His answer was one to savour.

“The problem I had,” replied Klopp, “was that I was getting the news from Germany as well as from England. I had no idea of the pandemic situation in Italy or France, but I do know exactly how it is in England and Germany, and an alien looking at it from outside would think we came from two different planets.”

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