…and our deluded leaders couldn’t care less
‘The likes of Matt Hancock have learned nothing. Another crisis is coming and we’ll shut down again’
Covid lockdowns were one of the greatest political, economic and moral blunders of modern times. Three and half years after the first confirmed cases of the virus in Britain, there is now enough evidence to state, unequivocally, that the costs of shutting down society, a novel, untested response pioneered by Communist China, massively outweighed the benefits.
It was a catastrophic error: we should have pursued a liberal Swedish or Floridian approach. Lockdowns saved or extended comparatively few lives but inflicted huge economic, social, health and psychological damage, left behind a ticking cancer time bomb and caused or exacerbated most of the pathologies of contemporary Britain.
Yet there is something very wrong with our national conversation: why are we so reluctant to accept our mistakes, to connect the dots, to link lockdowns with Broken Britain? How is Matt Hancock able, with a straight face, to tell the Covid Inquiry that Britain must prepare for wider, earlier and more stringent lockdowns in the face of future pandemics? The delusion is staggering, the hypocrisy sickening, the mendacity breath-taking.
Hancock’s beloved lockdowns are the primary reason why the Conservative party will be crushed at the next election, why our economy is in ruins, and why the NHS has imploded. The former health secretary, a Remainer who broke his own social distancing rules when he had his affair, may not care, but lockdowns are directly responsible for wasting the historic opportunity that was Brexit and dashing the dream, shared by so many in 2016 and 2019, of rebuilding Britain along more conservative lines. They are the central reason why inflation remains out of control and thus why so many are going on strike, why so little seems to work in our country, why taxes have gone up, why so many children are suffering from mental health issues and why Boris Johnson isn’t prime minister any longer.
