Thread by @MattCarr55

Just been looking at the review of this new book Failures of State: The Inside Story of Britain’s Battle with Coronavirus. It looks like an essential look back at the catalogue of horrific and unforgivable errors committed by the government, not to mention shockers like this:

I was struck by the reviewer’s suggestion that a book like this may be part of a ‘reckoning’ with the Johnson government at some point when the post-vaccination bounce has worn off. It would be comforting, up to a point, to believe that this will happen. However,

There are various factors that make this ‘reckoning’ outcome unlikely. One is the control of the narrative by a ruthless, corrupt and immoral government that takes responsibility for nothing and will do everything it can to ensure that no one else tries to get it to do so

This are the only things this government is genuinely good at: lying, ducking and diving, deflecting, pretending things happened that didn’t, pretending they did things they didn’t, presenting any accusations to the contrary as ‘hindsight’

They will be supported virtually en masse by the Tory press, Tory social media commentators, a supine BBC which will do nothing to rock the (Tory) boat. All these outlets and individuals will seek to cover the government’s tracks and deflect attention away from the issues raised

Beyond this there is a solid rump of Tory voters that simply doesn’t care what the government does and will always support it when push comes to shove. And an opposition which lacks teeth and fury, and which is increasingly being pushed to the margins and incapable of

reaching out beyond its narrow base. Then there is the public which, as the polls indicate, seems to be voting again and again from a position of individualistic selfishness: ‘we’re being vaccinated now so everything’s fine and they were doing their best’ etc

Millions of people will be so relieved to get out of this that they will simply forget how we got into it, and the extent of government negligence that made a bad situation even worse. Many are voters are now so infected with populist toxins that they will vote Tory simply to

damage and humiliate their opponents without any regard for the national or societal interest. Couple this with the traditional reluctance of the British political class to investigate the crimes and misdemeanours of the British state.

Sure we had a ‘lessons learned’ inquiry into the Iraq War - the single greatest crime/catastrophe for which the UK government was responsible before Covid, the result of a cascade of egregious errors, many linked to the same hubris, exceptionalism, and shorttermism

That undid us this time. But there was no reckoning. None of its architects paid any price for it. Not even in career terms. Chilcot didn’t bring an end to our endless obsession with military ‘interventionism.

So I suspect that Covid will go the same way, perhaps some polite, careful curated inquiry, a nicely-put together report with a few revelations that make no splash in a society that increasingly doesn’t care what it’s government does as long as it’s a Tory government.

And the same with Brexit of course - another off-the-scale catastrophe of lies, incompetence and failure that would have any politically-healthy society and opposition screaming for answers and an investigation. Instead it’s mostly finger-in-your-ears time and la la la la la.

All of which is a crying, painful shame. Because a society that can’t hold its government to account, or doesn’t even want to, is not a society that is going anywhere good, and as the old adage goes, those who cannot learn from their mistakes are doomed to repeat them.

THE END