There have been a lot of complaints about how the government have handled this but the fact is, nobody knew what to do. Every country in the world has had their own thoughts as to what to do to limit the spread of COVID-19 and every country in the world apart from one, has failed. The only reasons New Zealand did so well is that there is hardly anyone there, it's not on the way to anywhere and it's in the middle of nowhere. The UK is a centre of international travel and trade, shutting all borders immediately would have meant more financial problems than we are having now and in the end wouldn't have helped anyway. We are a stubborn people and if we are told not to do something that's the very first thing some people will try to do. It's like saying DO NOT PRESS THIS RED BUTTON. Equally, we are packed in tight over here, there are 68 million people in an area 1/3 the size of Texas, our cities are over-populated and some family ethos in some areas is to have perhaps 10 or 15 people in the same dwelling. It is hardly surprising we are highly infected as a nation.
Most people have been compensated in some ways for having their workplaces closed but in any crisis there will be some who fall through the cracks, it's unfortunate but it happens. In any event, this series of lockdown/furlough episodes cannot continue indefinitely, the country is haemorrhaging money. My own wife was furloughed for six months then they laid her off permanently from her office job. Within three weeks she had four jobs cleaning and has got her hours back up to 35 a week, so there is work out there if one is prepared to do it and that is what people will eventually have to do, like they did when the mines closed and the steelworks closed.
The airline and travel industries are claiming special help because they have been so badly affected, well, suck it up baby because this is the way it is now. Things have been irrevocably changed, things will not get back to 'normal', ever. This virus will never go away and we just have to live with it the same as we live with typhoid, diphtheria, polio, malaria, et al. The sooner we accept things the way they are going to be the better we will all be. It's a good job WW2 isn't happening now because we would have fallen to the Nazis within minutes of the outbreak of war all the while complaining about how unfair it all was.
Rant over.
Sorry OP, this particular rant has nothing to do with your original post.