England arrives at a perfect time that will fit the Boris Johnson era. Everything is being arranged to convince us that it is over, even if it isn't over yet. The prime minister is expected to explain his government's living with Covid strategy on Monday and most remaining Covid rules and restrictions will be lifted on Thursday.
Although Northern Ireland seems to be taking a similar route, Scotland and Wales are once again sticking to more cautious policies. This is an opportunity for him to show the hardcore libertarians in the Conservative party that their home country is on a path to freedom and easy living.
Clearly, it isn't. A basic fact of life in early 2022, that has been overlooked, is highlighted by this latest set of moves. After two years of sacrifice, grief and hurt, there is no sign of political payback for what people have gone through. The worsening situation in Ukraine makes such talk look rather foolish, but we were chivvied through the worst of the Covid crisis with endless comparisons to wartime and the supposed glories of the Blitz spirit. This is a big part of why the public mood is so low.
The everyday state of things is highlighted by the position of city and local government. A new financial year looms, and any extra money from the government doesn't meet the rising need for the most basic local services or cover the financial deficits caused by the Covid crisis. The council has to cut 28 million dollars from its budget, and is closing children's centers and youth services. They are reviewing library services and considering cutting vulnerable people's home care in Doncaster, and the council is about to get rid of the council tax support worth up to $29 a week. Hampshire is trying to save 80 million over two years, which means cuts to children's social care, work with young offenders, education services and school transport.
Joe Biden adopted a slogan that had been in sporadic circulation for at least 15 years: "build back better". You might have thought those three words would be more common than ever, but they are not. The Conservative approach to the one thing that definitely needs to be built remains as standoffish as ever, despite the fact that Covid infections and death rates were made worse by poor and overcrowded homes. Between March 2020 and April last year, 6,000 homes for social rent were delivered in England, amounting to one for every 190 households stuck on waiting lists. The appalling state of public health in the UK was highlighted by our Covid death toll. During the three national lockdowns, it was fashionable to focus on the sacrifice made by children and young people, but nothing has come of it. The government's story seems to be another example of the English habit of undergoing trauma and misery, being reminded that everything rests on the ricketiest of foundations, and then pretending nothing has happened.
Johnson says whatever he thinks suits the moment and then moves on to something else. Even if he was serious about using the state to transform the economy and society, the Treasury would not approve of the kind of spending involved. The prime minister is taking a close look at how the government can be hacked back, according to the new chief of staff. The sudden burst of interventionism and collectivist thinking was frightening for these Conservatives.
Labour has different intentions, but still risks being involved in the state of willed amnesia. It is understandable that Keir Starmer is getting in the way of him speaking to the moment, but also that he is deep into the stage of his leadership. His three watchwords are security, prosperity and respect, all of which come up in focus groups, but are not very relevant. Labour's plans for the economy are reminiscent of the 1990s. When Starmer talks about what we have all been through, there is still no sense of a centre-left party confidently speaking to a country reeling from the loss of 180,000 people and the experience of every aspect of its collective life being upended.
The Sunday Times reported on the Conservative party's advisory board of 14 unbelievably wealthy donors. When I read that, I thought of George Orwell, who wrote in 1941 about a kind of Conservative who believed that when the second world war was over, the country could be pushed back to democracy. England has a tragic habit of forgetting its own history and being obsessed with tradition.
It says something about where we are that the words sound less like a blast from the past than a very urgent warning.
John Harris writes for the Guardian.
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