Virus ‘Grinch’ Continues to Shine a Light on Britain’s Decline

The nation of action, and civil servants, is clueless in an emergency

A deserted Regent Street, London (Image:AP/Frank Augstein)

I wrote Covid-19 Shines a Light on Britain’s Decline on May 4th, 2020. The immediate, largely angry, feedback I received can be summed up as — ‘time will tell’. I said, yes, ‘time shall tell’. Here we are in December, having had a free for all over the summer, a rag-tag bunch of ‘tiered’ restrictions, devolved administrations going to war with the central government, and finally, via another national lockdown, in a newly invented ‘Tier 4’, with a mutant ‘Grinch’ virus apparently wreacking havoc.

I don’t take any joy in short-selling Britain’s response to this emergency — the biggest takeaway from the May article was that Britain lacks, crucially, in national responses to emergencies. The devolved governments, should theoretically, make it better, but in fact they make it worse. I asked,

“When was the last time the entire nation pulled together as one in the face of adversity? When was it necessary to roll-out a nation-wide solution to any problem? I struggle to think of a single moment since the end of the Second World War. Ironically, today’s bank holiday has been moved to the end of the week to mark the 75th anniversary of the VE Day.”