The FT has reported this morning that:
Boris Johnson has been urged by an influential Conservative MP to end all Covid-19 restrictions in England by the end of this month, or face a massive revolt within his party and the prospect of a leadership challenge later this year.
They noted that the demand from Mark Harper MP, who is the chair of the Covid Recovery Group, is that all restrictions should end on 26 January when most current rules expire and that Johnson must then commit to never bring them back.
The reason given by Harper is that unless this happens hospitality businesses will not have the confidence to invest in the UK and, according to him, we must commit that whatever happens with regard to Covid businesses will never be shut down or face impediments to trading ever again.
This is a quite extraordinary demand to make. I admit to having to struggle to understand the mindset of Mark Harper and those who think like him. As a result, I may get his logic wrong but it does seem worth a little effort to try to work out what that logic is by working out the underpinnings of this demand.
There is, of course, at the heart of this demand a simple rejection of the role of government. It would be easy to assume that this explained everything about this position. After all, the heart of the supposed libertarian right-wing Tory is dedicated to three things which might be summarised as small government, the elimination of regulation and the reduction of taxation.
Brexit was, of course, meant to deliver all three. It has in practice done no such thing. In fact, as is daily becoming more obvious, the exact opposite is true. Perforce, government has been bigger of late; overall levels of tax revenue as a proportion of GDP are high, albeit that much of that is because of the destruction in GDP created by both Brexit and Covid rather than the actual sums demanded; and Brexit is dramatically increasing the amount of red tape within the economy contrary to all the claims ever made for it.
In that case one very obvious reason for this Covid demand from the almost identical group of MPs who promoted the Brexit cause is to provide an alternative vehicle for their political fantasies when their first venture intended to achieve this goal has so clearly failed. And, given that these MPs are very simple people, by which I mean they appear to have a very limited range of issues of concern on which they appear to have binary views, to think that they have moved from one project for the promotion of their fantasy to another of similar type is far from unreasonable.
However, that explanation is insufficient to suggest how they reached this position. There are other assumptions that have to be made about their mindset if their demand is to be understood. In addition to their dedication to small government, the elimination of regulation and the reduction of taxation they have, as Harper's comments make clear, to be more interested in the well-being of profit-generating businesses than they are of the well-being of the people who either work for or who are the customers of those enterprises. Certainty for business is apparently much more important in Harper's worldview than is the protection of the people who elected him from short and long-term illness as well as death.
Leaving aside for a moment what this says about the empathy that Harper and his colleagues have for their fellow human beings, what it also reveals is an extraordinary lack of understanding of the integrated nature of an economy, let alone a society. Harper's assumption is that letting Covid rip through society as a consequence of taking no public health precautions to prevent that happening will have no consequences for the businesses that he says he is so desperate to support. To describe this as naive as to be kind. As we know at present, there are very large numbers of people off sick with Covid, and most of those will actually be suffering the symptoms of the illness. In other words, in itself this disease is deeply disruptive of the business environment about which he says he is so concerned. It is absurd to pretend otherwise. Either because people are sick or because they have locked themselves down as a consequence of quite reasonable fear of the consequences of becoming sick (the long-term implications of which are now becoming more apparent by the day as new research is published) Covid is a very real threat to business and the only way to prevent that is to take proactive measures to reduce its transmission within society to the greatest possible degree. I have explored those required measures already and will not do so again here. Instead, read what I had to say here and here. From Harper's point of view my suggestions are, of course, a nightmare: I cannot see any way in which business can enjoy the reassurance that it needs without a larger role for the state in eliminating the threat from Covid.
And then there is something else to consider. There is an assumption that organisations like the NHS can do whatever is demanded of them without ever considering the people who work for them. I suggest that this is not an accident. Harper and his ilk believe that people of value only work if there is a profit motive involved in their activity even if almost everyone engaged in such an enterprise takes no entrepreneurial risk when doing so and enjoys the benefit of a fairly secure salary paid each month as a consequence of their employment, and therefore has the same type of incentive arrangement as any state employee. I really doubt that Harper understands this, or perhaps, more accurately, suppresses the fact that he does so that his beliefs can be aligned with his assumption that only profit-driven activity is a benefit to society and everything else is parasitical upon it, including those who work for the NHS and other public services.
Put all this together and Harper's claim might make sense, at least to him. If you subjugate everything to the god called profit, including human life, concern for the well-being of 0thers, and the interest of all participants in the economy except those who actually enjoy the reward from profit-making activity, then you can come to his position.
In the real world where profit drives very few people - including the vast majority of self-employed people who are simply working for a living - and where concern for others dominates our lives - then his opinion is rightfully incomprehensible. But we live in a world where it seems that the right-wing echo chamber is intensely powerful, largely because of the grip it has on the Tories, and so the prime minister. As a result a form of madness grips the land. This is profoundly worrying, most especially when the demands that climate change create will be so much greater than those we now face. Changing mindsets of those like Harper seems unlikely. But in that case how do we persuade people that people like him are really are deeply opposed to their well-being? That seems to be the relevant question.
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Richard,
Apart from the obvious point that we are being sacrificed on the altar of the Hospitality Industry, it seems to me that if the Hospitality Industry isnt careful & we get a further, unmanageable wave of COVID then there is a real risk that the industry and its supporters might end up being, possibly quite rightly, being blamed for it and becoming very unpopular
I have had a Damascene conversion since the Brexit vote. Sufficient numbers seem vote on hope rather than reality to decide the election. Which party offers more hope than the other at present?
What terrifies me is that Labour offers no hope (that I can see). The Tories are offering a future, though dystopian, that appeals to the selfish, the “there is no such thing as society” segment.
Yet today the Guardian reports that hospitals are looking at putting beds in gyms and education rooms and the NHS has agreed to contract private hospitals to carry out cancer treatment !
My daughter in law who is a hospital doctor says they are expecting an big influx of more Covid patients in the next 10 days.
All over by 26th January I think not !
We are now two weeks from Christmas – which is when admissions being to rise
ICU is a week or more away as yet – omicron is not an ICU issue until well into the second week after admission risk apparently
let’s hope the voters of the Forest of Dean see-through Harper’s nonsense and give him the boot at the next election.
There is some encouraging news in that the number of patients on ventilation has been flat for a month, despite hospitalisations trebling over the same period. Also, the number of covid patients in hospital is sharply down on this time last year.
There is a healthcare cost to lockdowns, however I’m it’s not me that has to try and calculate the cost/benefit. Accidentally or otherwise, the Government may have things right this year.
Your optimism is hopelessly misplaced. It is thought that omicron is likely to involve a longer lag to a person arriving on ICU than previous variants. The delay could be 3 to 4 weeks. It is only been in the country for six weeks. Why you are optimistic is very hard to work out.
I’m aware of the lag, however the data remains more encouraging than otherwise. I’m certainly not assuming the situation won’t get worse, however we do seem to be ahead of where we were last year. We’ll see how this develops soon enough.
Funny how the best epidemiologists can’t seem to see that
To put my Star Trek hat on I’ve always associated Tories with the Ferengi. Basically ultra-capitalists where profit is the only goal. As a “species” they were introduced in the late 80’s – nothing has changed my mind. You’ll be screwed over for a fast buck. In this case society will be screwed over instead.
When you say “As a “species” they were introduced in the late 80’s”, do you mean the Frengi, the Thatcherites, or both?
Both are reprehensible and alien to our species.
Good analogy though.
If you want to know one of the the truths about this issue, just look at what Labour’s Rachael Reeve was advocating the other day to deal with the forthcoming energy cost crisis.
Were any of you convinced? Did any of you have a sudden epiphany of hope? I didn’t. Talk about weak. Talk about crass. Talk about effing useless. Talk about fiddling whilst the farm burns down. Vacuousness.
It’s this sort rubbish that helps to perpetuate the Tories.
It’s shame about that because as already pointed out, the Tories will think that they are untouchable and then they’ll trip themselves up big time – the energy crisis could be that event.
The Twitter feed on the 47 yer old man who died of heart attack will also so do the rounds. But where is the media? Where are the pictures of over-flowing A&Es from the first round of Covid? I don’t think I’ve seen any reporting on this yet? Did the Government and NHS Trusts (whose senior management stand to make a fortune out of increasing privatisation) ban it?
But there has to be something genuinely new I think to pull propel people away from Boris & Co. HM Opposition are not doing their job and the question has to be why? The answer can only be that Labour too think like the Tories and would do the same? Surely?
The Tories are the biggest risk to public health and have been for some time. They have run down the NHS to prepare it for privatisation, they failed to ensure adequate stock of useable PPE, they acted, as in the cliché, too little too late- repeatedly, they splurged billions on a tracing scheme which had no discernible effect, and they are now determined to return to “normal” whatever the consequences using their new mantra of “endemic” thinking it’s a synonym for “harmless”. The PM is a hostage to the nutters on the back benches thanks to FPTP. PR might deliver more sensible people as a counterweight to the hard right danger.
“ As a result a form of madness grips the land. ”
There is not much different about this madness. Mussolini used it, and Nazis and of course Franco – but WE were the masters of the madness through the Imperial fantasy; the manifestations of Mosley and co all wrapped up in ancient (not) royalty and Aristos, ravaging and raping not just the world but the local serfs to build their estates and fortunes. Many survive and grow daily wealthier with offshore funds avoiding all natural taxation. They always return. The French chopped their heads off!
The spivs like Harper, Barclay and ReesMogg are just jumped up war profiteers who live it large at home while sending kids to die – not their own.
Their absurd Bible of Atlas Shrugging utter nonsense came straight through the War and at the behest of the same forces of Money that agitated throughout the last centuries.
A lie of course. Everything should be private? No government. No public spending … yeah? What about the soldiers and sailors and airforce? What about their toys?!
At which point they mumble something about the government and sacrifice…before reverting to the Madness.
What they can’t stand is that China is creating hundreds of millionaires daily and plenty of billionaires too!
That they have zero control over their fate.
Their plans of geopolitical conquest is at an end.
That and other such proof of their Madness is driving them into denial – their little Jesuit brains addled from when they were six year olds sent to the various temples, seminary’s and palaces of Money is a clear sign of their cognitive dissonance.
The despair has led them to retreat into enclaves and a plan for a divided world where the majority of humanity gets on with progress while they hide behind artificial walls and borders protecting their ancient fortunes in independent City States…
As I have long said that’s what BrexShit was really about.
We the serfs are kept in place by their owned media Barbies and Ken’s- who become millionaires delivering the message of their billionaire owners.
We will never believe that Tax does not raise money that Government spends.
We will never understand the reality that what the government spends out of thin air is not ‘Borrowed’
And we will never stop believing the fascists and Bankers with their lies of interest rate increase demands and bluster over issues they can not possibly understand (medical, climate, environment) Not while we let the media ghouls into our homes and heads daily, worshipping these sly messengers and ingesting whatever snake oil they dispense into our gapping senses.
I’d say start with them -dispense with the messengers by ignoring the mediums they have us chained to – the messages will then dissipate like the foul air of their stinking breath and bowls we are forced to endure.
First line of defence – shoot the messenger!
Absolutely brilliant, Richard. The is an utterly brilliant takedown of these people. Thank you.