James Forsyth James Forsyth

Coronavirus will be a test of trust

issue 21 March 2020

We are in a make-or-break moment for trust, not just in this government but in the British state itself. The measures that were announced by Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak this week are extraordinary in economic, social and legal terms. When the Covid-19 crisis is finally over, the state will be judged against how effective they were.

None of us will have lived through anything like what we are about to experience. If this country gets it broadly right, then trust in our politicians and the state will rise. But if it gets it wrong, then the nature of the relationship between the citizen and the state will be changed for at least a generation. People will be far more reluctant to follow official advice in future.

Johnson now talks about this being a ‘wartime government’. The phrase dramatises the change that has taken place, one that no one could have anticipated when the Tories won their 80-seat majority on 12 December.

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