The only thing that will make any sense of the challenges, difficulties and damage that the Johnson Government has caused us all in its response to Coronavirus and their creation of the Lockdown and Social Distancing will be the opportunities that the coming reset it has precipitated will offer us. We simply MUST be sure that we capitalise on these in the very best ways that we can.
Even as I read that opening paragraph back, it is very easy to think that the subject of the problems caused by Boris, Sunak and the Government in dealing with the Coronavirus Pandemic have taken place in isolation or a bubble. It feels like it was only from their response with the Lockdown and Social Distancing measures that the problems that we are now facing began.
Today, many people are looking at the situation – not usually before they have been directly affected by it in some way themselves – and are responding to what has happened as if it is the only game in town.
There is no consideration for the process of cause and effect. People are literally falling into the trap of believing that all our problems will be solved once the Lockdown and Social Distancing have been turned around.
Picture this: This reaction is rather like it would be if you had literally been shot by Boris with a gun and the only thing on your mind would be taking the man down. You wouldn’t be thinking about how he came to have the gun, why he felt compelled to use it or any of the process that led to him being there and acting on a decision that could end your life. All you would see is that you had been shot. However, nor would there be any consideration for the real and far reaching effect that his actions had on you. What about your life going forward and how you deal with it in the years to come? And no, this is not an equation that can be offset for anyone in simple financial terms.
A strange metaphor perhaps. But getting the point across that there is a much bigger game at play over all this to a majority of people is difficult when we seem to be hardwired culturally only to focus on effects of the apparent or most immediate cause.
Some would counter at this point with the suggestion that the effect of what Boris et al have caused is the job losses, the business closures, the loss of income, the loss of education, the wrecking of exam results, the domestic abuse, the suicides and much more. And in the most literal sense they would be right.
But what these very stupid politicians have done and now continue to do was and is itself a culmination of events or rather the effect of many things that have happened over what may be many years before. That combination or compilation of effects has itself then become the focus of the problem and in itself another cause.
The problems that we have today as a result of the Coronavirus Pandemic are the outcome or effect of us having the wrong politicians in charge of the Country, presiding over a system that itself has been heading in the wrong direction for a very long time.
That is the real or genuine cause of possibly all the problems that we have right across society – not just what we are feeling or can see in front of us right now. But issues like wealth inequality, a lack of social mobility, prejudice of all kinds, the debt culture, general political disenfranchisement. These and many more are the effects of having a rotten political system that is filled with stupid politicians who are unfit to be public representatives of any kind.
The biggest risk to the future of this Country and to us all as individuals today will be going forward indefinitely and facing the coming reset with any of these people left in charge or still able to influence our direction in any way.
The anti-lockdown movement and all those who are awakening to the what the reality of Boris’, Sunak’s and this Establishment’s ‘new normal’ really is, see the pain and restrictions they face purely in terms of being the effect of what the Government has done by implementing the Lockdown and the Social Distancing measures it has taken since.
We’ve been here before in circumstances that look different but are basically the same. And sadly, our cultural disposition is that any change will do. Many of us will just accept that enough has been done if Boris and Sunak were to simply change their minds.
Yet the change that we now require for the fair and balanced future that we ALL so desperately need will not become our reality if we simply accept change as being enough in what is a very small and piecemeal form.
When the pressure reaches a level where these politicians see their ‘careers’ being at risk, they will then make the minimal changes that they believe necessary to keep their positions secure.
But it is their lack of ability, their lack of wherewithal and real-world experience, their lack of understanding of people who lead different lives, their lack of an overall unwillingness to govern for everyone and above all, their fundamental lack of the ability to lead that is at the heart of every problem that this Country has. And we collectively deserve a hell of a lot more.
People are already frustrated with being ignored by the people who are currently in control. Those vocalising their fight against masks and Social Distancing are allowing that frustration to reach a level where they look more ridiculous than the people who caused the mess that they are protesting against. This will serve only to damage the ‘freedom’ cause.
This political class will only be reached and influenced by what they consider to be a tangible threat to their chances at the next General Election.
Seeking to become a threat is itself not enough in any way. A threat will never go far enough.
A commitment to the end result and creating a movement that is fully equipped with a universal approach to public policy that addresses the causes of all societies problems is the only way to go forward and make the post-Coronavirus World work well and equitably for us all.
There must be a wholesale approach to addressing the situation as it is. There must be a willingness and commitment to the end result that is not distracted or derailed by anything or any event that appears to get in the way. Otherwise, these very wily operators will find a way to remain in place.
Boris, Sunak, the political culture behind them and the entire Establishment they represent must fall if it is we and not they who are in place to dictate the ‘new normal’ once the reset starts to form.
Adam Tugwell 