Britain has suffered one of the world’s highest Covid death tolls and worst Covid recessions. It has managed this abysmal feat despite spending nearly £300bn on countering the virus, a sum far greater than almost any other comparable country. We have achieved the triple crown of medical, economic and fiscal failure because of a reason that is under-discussed: the lethal divisions on the right.
They have paralysed the government, and condemned thousands to premature deaths and needless suffering. Yet we do not see them with the clarity we should because of our skewed culture. Conservative titles dominate the written media, and for reasons I will get to, opposition to public health is far more likely to be found on the right than the left. Meanwhile broadcasters’ conceptions of ‘impartiality’ ensure that doctors and epidemiologists must always be ‘balanced’ by know-nothing ideologues and base-pleasing hacks.
Perhaps foreign observers can see clearly how weird contemporary Britain is.
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