Britain's death toll climbed to the highest in Europe last night in one of the darkest days of the coronavirus pandemic. Two official measures showed that UK figures had surpassed Italy's - previously the worst-affected nation on the continent.

The first was government data showing there had been 29,427 deaths in hospitals, care homes and the community - a rise of 693 in one day.

But a second set of figures from the then Office for National Statistics put the death toll at 32,375A slightly higher figure than it appears in the graphic above because it was updated this morning. - once numbers from Scotland and Northern Ireland had been included.

The UK's death toll is now second in the world to the USA, which has, so far, reported 71,228, and has a population five times the size.

Ministers are now facing accusations that they failed to act quickly enough in enforcing the lockdown; testing; providing protective equipment for NHS staff, and preventing outbreaks in care homes.

The four-day Cheltenham Festival was allowed go ahead from 16 March, drawing crowds of thousands to the racecourse. And images are still emerging online of Britons being brought home on packed planes.

Pity the team at 10 Downing Street as they pore over the morning headlines today. "Lockdown professor steps down after breaking rules to meet married lover," says the usually-supportive Telegraph, in inch-high letters emblazoned across the front page.

Under the Telegraph's headline are two enormous images - like a wanted poster - of charity campaigner Antonia Staats and her lover Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College, London, the scientist credited with the modelling that hardened the UK government's coronavirus position.

Elsewhere, there are numerous accounts of Chief Scientific Officer Patrick Vallance reluctantly admitting to a parliamentary committee that the UK would have fared better during the coronavirus crisis if it had increased testing capacity more quickly.

And again in the usually loyal Telegraph, there is a savage sketch of Health Secretary Matt Hancock for telling the shadow minister for mental health and A&E; doctor Rosena Allin-Khan to "watch her tone" when she asked whether a lack of testing had cost some patients their lives.

"Would Matt Hancock have told a male MP to watch his tone? I don't think so," writes the paper's columnist Claire Cohen, as another report in the same paper describes him losing his grip and looking "like a haunted teabag".

Trivial examples? "Taken individually, maybe," says one punditAn expert in a particular subject or field, who is often asked to give their opinions to the public.. "But they are straws in the windA figure of speech meaning a minor event or action that predicts or foreshadows a future bigger event.. There is a storm brewing because of alarm over the UK's death rate."

Yet, only yesterday, a major opinion survey said that trust in government has reached record levels in the UK - rising faster than any other market in the world, according to the latest Edelman Trust BarometerAccording to its own website, the Edelman Trust Barometer is the most comprehensive study of trust in the world. Every year for the past 20 years, Edelman has examined trust in business, government, media, and non-governmental organisations (like Oxfam and Medecins Sans Frontieres)..

Yes, say some. We all want to believe in the skills of a pilot when a plane flies into a storm. But if they make too many mistakes, it is much better for someone else to grab the controls. The media and the Labour opposition need to be much tougher on the British government now.

Hang on, say others. Government is the art of the possible, not the perfect. It is childish to expect magic solutions. Britain faces unique challenges, including huge cities, huge airports, and one of the highest levels of obesity in Western Europe. In the circumstances, the UK is not doing a bad job.