2021-03-27
Our governments around the world now believe that they can do it.
Why would they give it up?
Kit Knightly, writing for Off Gardian, provides a short and succinct summary of what she considers it was all about - and what was that?
Even Brexit-Watch (straying uncharacteristically off-topic) puts forward their view of how far this government has strayed from our once-proud tradition of fair-play and honesty:
"broadcasters continue to say they are still forced to push out one-sided and sensationalised coverage of the pandemic because of Ofcom rules which forbid any reporting that is critical of restrictions"
Taking up the subject matter in more depth, Daniel Miller, writing in Conservative Woman, points up what he suspects is going on:
"with ... the elimination of social differentiation and the reduction of the population into an aimless, shapeless mass (as distinct from the political elite) freedom transforms into a privilege"
Whilst he doesn't prove his point (he is not writing for a law court), he does provide an all-too-plausible round-up of where we are and how we got here - an effort both very credible and very creditable, in my view.
Of course, you may disagree, that's what freedom of thought is all about, but with freedom comes the responsibility to get it right, as far as we can - which in turn means that we must ensure that we understand our reasoning.
Anyway, maybe the "deadly virus" excuse was just to soften us up for what is to come - Mariana Mazzucato, "a professor at the Economics of Innovation and Public Value Center at University College London", moves the narrative on to the next level - get your summer holiday in whilst you can, if you can!
For those who would relate our Covid travails with the writings of Aldous Huxley and George Orwell, James Jeffery writing in The Critic joins the dots for us.
