This seems to sum things up:
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UK policy towards coronavirus
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Richard Murphy
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No room in this modern world for parody is there ?
I hated Yes Ministers as soon as I realised that the people that wrote it were sort of anti-Statist themselves.
Other than that, it is very apt for our times.
@Pilgrim
“… Yes Ministers ……it is very apt for our times.”
The basic principles of government today are drawn from Orwell. The detail comes from the Yes Ministers and the interview technique is from The Two Johns.
Life always imitates art eventually.
Maybe…………..if we are honest though, it is the dumb elected members however that determine policy, set the scene.
Since 1979, what the Neo-lib infected Tories have been doing is axiomatic so you would therefore expect resistance in the Civil Service to some degree right up to the Cameron/May/Johnson iterations ( and a dose of Blue Labour under Blair).
Pro-Thatcherite anti-Statists love this sort stuff because they can portray the Civil Service as the enemy within, whilst in fact the Civil Service might be the last line of defence as the Tories continue to remake Medieval England in their own image. I always thought that in the The Two Johns, Parr played a Government appointed minister or advisor and Fortune teased out their stupidity / hypocrisy / greedy motives (or was it the other way around?).
Life imitating art? Disagree. What art does sometimes is hold up a mirror or even something akin to a negative image (in photographic terms) – effectively stripping out the characters/celebrity status of the people involved so that what is left is what they are actually saying and somehow its mendacity becomes clearer. That is the real gift of satire I think.
Boris giving us the “strategy”:
“…One of the theories is perhaps you could take it on the chin, take it all in one go & allow coronvirus to move through the population without really taking as many draconian measures…”
whilst Jeremy Warner talking up Coronavirus “economics” positively in relation to Spanish Influenza via the Telegraph gives us the rationale:
“…. Not too put too fine a point on it, from an entirely disinterested economic perspective, the Covid-19 might even prove mildly beneficial in the long term by disproportionally culling elderly dependents…”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/03/03/does-fed-know-something-rest-us-do-not-panicked-interest-rate/
-I wonder if Jeremy’s Torygraph readers ( average age: 61) realise he means… them?
I doubt it
Many a true word spoken in jest.
We desperately need some sharp political satire.
I was stunned by the picture of Sir Mark Sedwell, head of the civil service, at the select committee enquiry yesterday – a complete doppleganger for Sir Humphrey. It would appear his performance was a masterclass in the same vein – no-one was left any the wiser as to the truth of the situation.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/mar/10/ministers-should-be-courteous-to-officials-says-top-civil-servant-priti-patel
Perhaps coronavirus will reduce the NHS ability to cope even further thereby saving the Tory government time and effort doing it by other means