Should Gavin Williamson resign as a career move?

Amid all the puzzlement and recrimination about why the government got into this mess about A-level and GCSE results, one factor has been missed — the effect of Covid-19. I do not mean the obvious fact that none of this would have happened without the disease. I mean the less obvious one that our governmental and political system works very badly without the close human contact which Covid forbids. In normal times, MPs meet their constituents. Ministers meet fellow MPs in the Members’ Lobby and hear from them about constituents’ worries, such as their children losing university places. In Whitehall corridors, civil servants bump into one another and notice upcoming problems. And in cabinet — or, more likely, on its margins — senior ministers can sense trouble brewing. In the absence of such informalities, 10 Downing Street turns in on itself. Communication stops. The quango machine rolls on unchecked, until disaster strikes.