Crises like these hold up mirrors to societies. The really disturbing senario is the UK Government is right. That we don't have the attention span, social capital, economic structures or will to maintain disruption long enough so pushing back social distancing is the right call.
That's my problem with this. You don't need conspiracy theories to explain why the UK Government is doing what it's doing. The UK Government has just been quite open about that. Critics need to contest the two central premises of the decision not suggest there is a secret one.
Premise 1. That if we push the button now by late May/early June a revolt by a bored and financially ruined populus will force at least a partial return to normality and slam into the viruses second wave. Looking at British society is that entirely unreasonable ?
Premise 2. That both sides of the casualisation,consumerisation, financalisation of the economy - gig workers and rentiers - won't be able or willing to socialise the losses needed to protect a demographic we happily send to ' Granny Farms '. Is this wrong ?
Clearly the answers to those questions are opinion not fact and value laden. However are the premises themselves correct as the basis for discussion ? I think they are. Lets look at two of the big issues.
Firstly take a look at mainstream British culture. Tabloid output, ITV , Radio phone ins and how the BBC has had to self immolate to stay mainstream. Put bluntly what do you think the #BBCQT audience will be like in Week 14 of lockdown ?
Secondly our politics became purely destructive 17 years. Every sucessful narrative has either been trust destroying ( dodgy dossier, expenses, you bailed out the Bankers ) or has recreated antisocial capital by othering. (The 1%, Vote Leave, the Many not the Few, Independence)
How we got here and where we go are complex and in anycase will be reshaped by the coming storm. But it raises disturbing questions for both Left and Right.
Too much of the Left has infantalised social policy by weaponising any requirement for personal resilience as state failure and that half the country lives on Foodbank parcels. Neither is true and creating these narratives has consequences.
Too much of conservativism now has no interest in conserving anything. " Britain " is one of the oldest and deep rooted polities on Earth with millennium old institutions. Saying we can only cope with 14 weeks disruption not 16 should be absurd. But so much has been smashed.
For what it's worth ( nothing ) I think the Government has made the right judgement but the wrong call. The behavioural science is right but the response is the smack of firm government not delay. But do I understand why they are doing what they are doing ? Yes I do.
