Getting these things right is important. We’ve seen previously and in this pandemic that trust in government influences whether people follow public health guidelines. And in a UK survey earlier this year, those who had low levels of trust in the government’s ability to handle the outbreak were twice as likely to think its response had been confused and inconsistent. While a set of confusing slides won’t alone dictate how people behave, these things add up. This subtly reminds the audience what the point of the slide was. For example, ‘As a result of the information on this slide, we now know X.’ It’s a good way to reinforce key messages by repeating them. One former Cabinet minister told the Mirror: “If Sue Gray finds he lied to parliament unequivocally, or depending what action police take - that’s it. Boris Johnson (right) and Chris Whitty arrive for a Covid-19 media briefing at Downing Street in February. Photograph: WPA/Getty Images

Downing Street has insisted the event was a “virtual quiz”, but admitted “those who were in the office for work may have attended virtually from their desks.” Tactile/kinesthetic learners are the ‘doers’. For information to really sink in, they prefer ‘hands-on’ practical examples or exercises.By integrating these phrases into your virtual event vocabulary, you can keep your dialogue flowing and cohesive. You want your audience concentrating on the information you deliver and its value, not on the mechanics of movement from slide to slide. You can also use the new “standout” mode (not sure about that name, I prefer “weatherman mode”) to appear over the slides which can help promote engagement. Note, standout mode person overlaid on the slides won’t come through on a recording, The recording will show normal bottom right video.

If you have three bullet points and the first one says, Action points for 2021, it’s not helpful for you to say, ‘We have to do some important things this year.’ The audience will be looking for Action points for 2021. One Covid laws expert said that Scotland Yard should now add the Downing Street Christmas quiz to the list of events it is probing. Official guidance also stated: “You must not have a work Christmas lunch or party, where that is a primarily social activity and is not otherwise permitted by the rules in your tier.”

The crisis has demanded dedication and stamina, but Whitty has also needed the trust of those around him. One of his skills has been to maintain the confidence of politicians and academics – two groups that do not always see eye to eye, Prof David Heymann notes. “That is quite an accomplishment: it takes integrity to satisfy both groups.”

Martin and Keith have been making music together for over 20 years, when Keith’s overseas work commitments permitted, and before the Covid crisis they had been collaborating on a regular basis to indulge their love for the music of the Sliabh Luachra, the old dance halls of Irish America, and beyond. Former No10 aide Dominic Cummings warned: "There's waaaaay better pics than that floating around, incl in the flat." It’s worth remembering that audiences are made up of three groups of people – auditory, visual and kinesthetic – and they all learn in different ways. You might have seen UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson at a recent press conference repeating, ‘Next slide, please. Next slide, please.’Whitty was born in Gloucester, the first of four sons, and spent much of his early childhood in northern Nigeria. His mother, Susannah, was a teacher, his father, Ken, a British Council official. Whitty was sent to the UK for schooling, first to Windlesham House in West Sussex and then to Malvern College in Worcestershire. Among his early influences was his maternal grandmother, Grace Summerhayes, with whom he sometimes stayed. In 1928 she set up the first maternity hospital in Ghana, one of the first to provide midwifery and obstetric training in Africa. The connection instilled a passion for global health that is still in evidence today. The choice made for this map overemphasises small leaps in small numbers at the expense of big leaps in large numbers. Unless the values up to 25 and those between 25 and 50 had significance in policy, they could have been lumped into 0-50. Likewise, the map suggests anything greater than 200 doesn’t really matter – that a rate of 201 deserves the same colour as a rate of 601. This doesn’t seem right to me. But the point is, this system needs to be explained, because choosing different intervals can create a very different impression. See the banner prompt notifying the previous presenter that someone has taken over presenting and in the bottom left I can see it’s Tom Morgan now presenting And then, when we come to deliver it, the audience wants to feel we’re having a conversation with them. They don’t want to sit through just another presentation.