On the eve of the first anniversary of the initial restrictions, We start a week of special knightly reports.

在最初限制的一週年前夕，我們開始了一週的騎士特別報道。

Looking back.

回首往事。

Over the past year, our political editor, Laura Coons Berg, has spoken to 20 ministers and senior officials off the record, the men and women whose decisions have had such a far reaching effect on people's lives.

在過去的一年裡，我們的政治編輯勞拉-庫恩斯-伯格（Laura Coons Berg）與20位部長和高級官員進行了非正式的交談，這些人的決定對人們的生活產生了如此深遠的影響。

At the start of March last year, I asked a senior member of the government if they were worried about coronavirus.

去年3月初，我曾問過一位政府高層，他們是否擔心冠狀病毒？

Their answer was personally no.

他們的答案是個人認為不是。

Now we've lost more than the population of a small city.

現在我們失去的比一個小城市的人口還多。

I've talked to more than 20 senior politicians, officials and former officials, those who were in the room making the decisions.

我和20多位高級政客、官員和前官員談過，他們都是在房間裡做決定的人。

They agreed to talk on the basis of anonymity.

他們同意在匿名的基礎上進行交談。

This is what they were thinking as we all watched on mhm, mhm, mhm.

這就是他們的想法，我們都在嗯、嗯、嗯上看。

The virus arriving in Italy was when it sank in for most like a scene from a nightmare that Italy is now living.

病毒到達意大利的時候，對於大多數人來說，就像意大利現在生活在噩夢中的一幕一樣，沉浸其中。

The government had been talking about the virus for weeks, but some on the inside say it was seen as hysteria.

政府已經談論了幾個星期的病毒，但一些內部人士說，這被視為歇斯底里。

Is just like flew.

就是像飛了一樣。

It went from not on the radar to people on the floor of hospitals in Lombardy.

在倫巴底的醫院裡，它從不被人注意到，變成了地上的人。

That was the moment we knew it was inevitable, said one senior minister after several weeks of Cobra meetings, described by one attendee as a disaster, are we prepared enough?

那是我們知道這是不可避免的時刻，一位高級部長說，在幾周的眼鏡蛇會議之後，一位與會者將其描述為一場災難，我們準備得夠充分嗎？

Miss Hancock, the government machine was breaking in our hands, and insider told me Number 10 had started to prepare the public.

漢考克小姐，政府的機器在我們手中崩潰了，內部人士告訴我，10號已經開始為公眾做準備。

But although it was never a firm proposal, officials had even talked about chicken pox parties to help the virus spread among the healthy population.

不過，雖然一直沒有確定的方案，但官員們甚至談過水痘派對，以幫助病毒在健康人群中傳播。

The conversations were totally in the wrong universe, one source said.

一位消息人士說，這些對話完全是在錯誤的宇宙中。

But a tiny group of advisors confronted the prime minister with evidence on Saturday, the 14th of March, showing graphs to him that suggested without tougher, faster action, the NHS would collapse.

但一小群顧問在週六，3月14日面對首相的證據，向他展示了一些圖表，表明如果沒有更強硬，更快的行動，NHS將崩潰。

We had those reasonable worst case scenarios of hundreds of thousands of deaths, and the problem with them was that they were coming true, so we knew we had to act, and that Monday I went to parliament and said that all unnecessary social contacts should be stopped.

我們有那些合理的最壞的情況下，數十萬人的死亡，問題是他們正在成為現實，所以我們知道我們必須採取行動，那個星期一，我去了議會，並說所有不必要的社交接觸都應該停止。

I couldn't believe that I was having to say these words.

我不敢相信我不得不說這些話。

Lockdown was coming.

封鎖要來了。

It was all so new.

這一切都是那麼的新鮮。

We were more blind than we told the public, one official admits.

一位官員承認，我們比我們告訴公眾的更盲目。

But something more personal soon struck.

但更私人的東西很快就襲來了。

Tonight at 10, the prime minister, Boris Johnson, has been taken to intensive care.

今晚10點，首相鮑里斯-約翰遜被送往重症監護室。

Cabinet ministers were summoned urgently on the phone.

內閣大臣們被緊急電話傳喚。

All of a sudden we were asked to join a call, not knowing if he was alive, one of them said.

突然有人讓我們參加一個電話，不知道他是否還活著，其中一個人說。

Who's in charge of the government?

誰是政府的負責人？

Well, the government's business will continue.

好吧，政府的事情還會繼續。

But the country's spiraling into crisis could, for a moment have lost its prime minister.

但是，這個國家陷入危機的時候，可能，一時之間已經失去了總理。

But after two months of strict rules, news broke about the prime minister's chief advisor, Dominic Cummings.

但經過兩個月的嚴格規定，首相的首席顧問多米尼克-卡明斯的消息傳出。

He, in fact, traveled to his parents' home in Durham.

他，其實是去了達勒姆的父母家。

He refused to quit, instead defending himself in the Downing Street Garden.

他拒絕退出，而是在唐寧街花園為自己辯護。

I thought the best thing to do in all the circumstances was to drive to an isolated cottage on my father's farm.

我認為在所有情況下，最好的辦法就是開車去父親農場的一個偏僻的小屋。

The political atmosphere turned sour, the cabinet minister said.

內閣部長說，政治氣氛變壞了。

There's been tremendous goodwill.

已經有了巨大的善意。

The early pandemic washed away the bitterness of Brexit But that came flooding back all that bile, all that frustration by the summer, with cases fallen and many rules relax, we didn't feel like a country in the grip of a pandemic, even encouraged to eat out.

早期的大流行洗去了Brexit的苦澀 但是，到了夏天，所有的膽汁，所有的挫折都湧了回來，案件下降，許多規則放鬆，我們並沒有感覺到自己是一個處於大流行中的國家，甚至鼓勵在外面吃飯。

Hello.

你好啊

But when schools and universities returned, the testing system couldn't cope and the rise began.

但當學校和大學回歸後，考試製度無法應對，於是開始崛起。

A senior figure told me, If you do nothing now, by the end of October, you'll get something worse than the first wave.

一位資深人士告訴我，如果你現在什麼都不做，到10月底，你會得到比第一波更糟糕的東西。

There was frustration among some in Downing Street about the prime minister's attitude, sometimes appearing to be in Let it rip mode.

唐寧街的一些人對首相的態度感到沮喪，有時似乎是在讓它撕裂模式。

What I said to the prime minister over the summer is review.

夏天我對總理說的是檢討。

What's gone on.

發生了什麼事。

There is likely to be a second way and don't make the same mistakes again because I think that's unforgivable.

很可能還有第二條路，不要再犯同樣的錯誤，因為我認為這是不可原諒的。

I might have given you the benefit of the doubt in the first way, but you didn't learn the lessons and you went and repeated the very same mistakes.

我可能在第一種方式上給了你好處，但你沒有吸取教訓，你去重蹈覆轍。

The prime minister resisted calls for a short lockdown.

總理抵制了短期封鎖的要求。

A senior figure told me the biggest mistake was the rush of blood to the head in the summer, and the prime minister has to carry the can from the middle of September, there were people in government saying, You're going to have to toughen things up.

一位資深人士告訴我，最大的失誤是夏天急得頭破血流，總理要從9月中旬開始扛罐子，政府裡有人說，你要強硬一點。

You're going to have to go faster.

你必須走得更快。

We listen to all of the evidence all the way through, but you've got to balance all of the different considerations.

我們一直在聽所有的證據，但你必須平衡所有不同的考慮因素。

It's only at the prime minister's desk that all these different considerations come together.

只有在總理的辦公桌上，所有這些不同的考慮才會彙集在一起。

Yet some believe Boris Johnson can't be blamed.

然而有人認為不能責怪鮑里斯-約翰遜。

It was a reasonable set of judgments to make.

這是一套合理的判斷。

No one knew then, either about the new variant, the oxygen levels plummet of a covid patient.

當時沒有人知道，也沒有人知道新的變種，一個科維德病人的氧含量急劇下降。

But for some of the decision makers still in government, the missed moments of September had a profound effect.

但對於一些仍在政府中的決策者來說，9月的錯過的時刻產生了深遠的影響。

Setting a course for a terrible second wave.

為可怕的第二次浪潮設定了路線。

Time and again, those who made the choices site one big success, throwing everything at finding a vaccine they had resolved to pay high a pay early and ensure it works at home.

一次又一次，那些做出選擇的人網站一次又一次的大獲成功，孤注一擲的找到了他們已經解決的疫苗高額支付，並確保它在家裡工作。

Minister is resolved to set aside the normal rules.

部長決心拋開正常的規則。

The project was vital but uncertain.

該項目至關重要，但不確定。

Much of it was secret to the vaccines even had code names named after submarines to protect commercial confidentiality.

其中很多是疫苗的祕密，甚至有以潛艇命名的代號，以保護商業機密。

Now that early choice to push alone for a vaccine seemed a stroke of genius, but back then it was a real gamble.

現在看來，早期選擇單推疫苗是一個天才的選擇，但當時是真正的賭博。

This generation of decision makers and the fabric of the state have been stretched in a way they just hadn't been for decades.

這一代的決策者和國家的結構已經被拉長了，只是幾十年來沒有過。

But so ever we.

但是，所以曾經我們。

But those who made the decisions are all too aware that mistakes in these last 12 months may have had such a terrible cost.

但是，做出這些決定的人都很清楚，這12個月來的錯誤可能會帶來如此可怕的代價。

That was Laura there with the first of this week's special reports on the past year.

那是勞拉，她帶來了本週第一個關於過去一年的特別報道。