How on Earth Did it Come To This? Britain and the Coronavirus Crisis

By P.E. Kerr

This book is an analysis of how free market neoliberal ideology became entrenched with the British system of political economy resulting in Britain's institutional and systemic capability to cope with national crises, but particularly the Covid 19 pandemic, fragmented, disorganised, and deeply compromised. I identify the ‘how’ it has come to ‘this’ as a fundamental consequence of the free market neoliberal ideology that has held the dominant position in all public policy in Britain since 1979 and the policy decisions that have emerged as a consequence.I explain what the ‘this’ is and then explain the ‘how’ through an examination of the ideological and methodological process by which Margaret Thatcher entrenched free market economics into the British system of political economy, predicated on the notion that there is no such thing as society. I argue that in doing this, she based Britain’s economic and social systems on a series of false hypotheses that have had tragic and profound consequences, the 'how' it has come to 'this'. In my analysis I examine and refute the basic assumptions that dominate modern political economy, such as the free market concepts of the individual, freedom, deregulation and privatisation, and the idea that Adam Smith has any responsibility through his writings for the concepts of free markets as they are understood in modern economic textbooks and academia. I examine the contribution of Milton Friedman to the notion that the economy can be regarded as an autonomous sphere of human activity and the influence that notion has had, and discuss how economic and social policy can differ widely under the influence of different versions of market behaviour. I also discuss the effect of free market neoliberalism on British politics.

• Language: English
• Publisher: P.E. Kerr
• Release date: Aug 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463829981

P.E. Kerr

I am Scottish and live in the South-West in Ayrshire. I am a retired lecturer in politics and sociology and a keen cyclist, swimmer and football supporter. Although retired I continue to study politics, sociology and political philosophy. I have a particular interest in Adam Smith. I have been politically active but ceased some twenty years ago. I had a book published in 2013 entitled Human Rights in a Big Yellow Taxi that sold modestly. I am married to a lady who is a devoted follower of Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer.

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How on Earth Did it Come to This?

Britain and the Coronavirus Crisis

P.E. Kerr

Copyright 2020 by P.E. Kerr

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - How on Earth did it come to this?

Chapter 2 - There in no such thing as society

Chapter 3 - The Individual

Chapter 4 - Freedom

Chapter 5 - The Adam Smith Problem

Chapter 6 - Westminster's Abandonment of Decency and Standards

Chapter 7 - Conclusion

About the Author

Other Titles by P.E.Kerr

Contact P.E.Kerr

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Chapter 1

How on Earth Did it Come to This?

Britain and the Coronavirus Crisis

Go on sir. Lay bare with undaunted heart and steady hand that horrid mass of corruption, called Politics and Statecraft. Dare to draw in their native colours those ‘calm thinking villains whom no faith can fix’ whatever be the shibboleths of their pretended party.

Robert Burns

The newly elected leader of the Labour Party in Britain, Sir Keir Starmer, rose in the House of Commons on Wednesday 6th May 2020 to face the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, for his first Prime Minister’s Questions as Leader of the Opposition. This was at the height of the coronavirus crisis and the Commons was strangely quiet with few MPs present because of the need for social distancing. Responding to the Conservative government’s propaganda over its handling of the virus pandemic, Starmer began by asking Johnson

When the Prime Minister returned to work a week ago Monday, he said that many people were looking at the apparent success of the Government’s approach, but yesterday we learned that, tragically, at least 29,427 people in the UK have now lost their lives to this dreadful virus. That is now the highest number in Europe and the second highest in the world. That is not success, or apparent success, so can the Prime Minister tell us: how on earth did it come to this?

Hansard 6/05/2020

Starmer’s reference to the Prime Minister’s return to work resulted from the fact that Johnson himself had contracted the virus and had been hospitalised following a spell of self-isolating at home. In response to Starmer’s question, Johnson made no attempt to address what he had been asked as a glance at the Hansard entry will confirm. Starmer, whether intentionally or not, had just asked what is probably the most important question he will ever ask in his life, because, unless we get a satisfactory answer to this question we will never be able to adequately solve the problem and will probably be condemned to continually repeat the same mistakes that brought us ‘to this’ in the first place. As a result, Starmer’s question must be, not only considered, but explained; just how on earth could a nation like the United Kingdom get itself into the tragic mess, politically and socially, that led to an appalling loss of life numbering over 51,000 Covid 19 deaths at this time of writing. The answer is deceptively simple, although rather complex to explain. The reason that the UK has come to this is because of a dominant ideology that had taken root, prospered, and had underpinned all government decision-making in political, social, and economic policy for forty years at the time of Starmer’s enquiry of the Prime Minister. The Covid 19 emergency that devastated the United Kingdom can be quite correctly described as the abiding legacy of Margaret Thatcher, the author of the policy agenda that was replicated by successive governments and Prime Ministers, guided by the poisonous ideology she successfully embedded within the fabric of Britain’s institutional life, and for which she continually insisted there was no alternative. Starmer’s reference to Britain having the second highest incidence of deaths from the virus resulted from the fact that the highest death rate was in the United States. It is no accident that the two highest death rates occurred in the UK and the US as both nations were the cheerleaders for both the ideology and the policy agendas that resulted in a complete inability to respond to the crisis when it hit them. Britain’s immediate inability lay in the lack of preparations to cope with it should it actually turn out to be a threat, and the practicalities of ‘how’ we came to ‘this’ were a combination of seriously depleted resources such as ventilators in hospitals and personal protective equipment for medical staff and care workers, and a seriously cavalier approach to the looming crisis by a government who quite simply refused to take it seriously and were extremely reluctant to commit resources. In practical terms, the government’s approach was a catalogue of failures such as

a) The government made no attempt to stop the spread of the virus and adopted a strategy of what they called ‘herd immunity’, arguing that they should just let the virus take its natural course. The government’s initial approach is well summarized by a rather bizarre speech the Prime Minister gave on 3rd February 2020 in Greenwich to celebrate leaving the European Union on 31st January during which he suggested that the British must be careful not to respond too strongly to the coronavirus threat as it may damage the economy, telling the audience that such a response would be incompatible with Britain as a ‘supercharged champion’ of free trade, what he said was

And in that context, we are starting to hear some bizarre autarkic rhetoric, when barriers are going up, and when there is a risk that new diseases such as coronavirus will trigger a panic and a desire for market segregation that go beyond what is medically rational to the point of doing real and unnecessary economic damage, then at that moment humanity needs some government somewhere that is willing at least to make the case powerfully for freedom of exchange, some country ready to take off its Clark Kent spectacles and leap into the phone booth and emerge with its cloak flowing as the supercharged champion, of the right of the populations of the earth to buy and sell freely among each other.

At his first televised press conference on the virus problem on the 3rd of March, Johnson actually told the nation that

I was at a hospital the other night where I think there were actually a few coronavirus patients and I shook hands with everybody. We should all basically go about our normal daily lives. The best thing you can do is to wash your hands with soap and water while singing Happy Birthday twice.

His attitude was made evident by his failure to attend the first five Cobra meetings held to discuss the virus crisis. The Institute for Government describes Cobra as COBR or COBRA is shorthand for the Civil Contingencies Committee that is convened to handle matters of national emergency or major disruption. Its purpose is to coordinate different departments and agencies in response to such emergencies. COBR is the acronym for Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms, a series of rooms located in the Cabinet Office in 70 Whitehall, proof that he considered the virus problem to be neither a national emergency nor a major disruption. The government repeatedly denied that their approach was to allow the development of a herd immunity, but that would appear to be a lie, because on 13th March, Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, speaking on BBC’s Radio Four Today programme told the nation that

Our aim is to try and reduce the peak, broaden the peak, not suppress it completely, also, because the vast majority of people get a mild illness, to build up some kind of herd immunity, so more people are immune to this disease, and we reduce the transmission. At the same time, we protect those who are most vulnerable to it. Those are the key things we need to do.

The Prime Minister referred to reducing and broadening the peak as squashing the sombrero. Later, in an interview on Sky news, when asked what proportion of the population would need to become infected to achieve herd immunity Vallance replied, ‘probably about 60% or so’.

b) They refused to impose a lockdown of the country for over three weeks after numerous other nations did so, and in the same week of Vallance’s Friday 13th March interview, the government allowed the Cheltenham Festival horseracing programme from 10th to the 13th to proceed, with over 65,000 in attendance for the Gold Cup on the 13th, a football fixture between Liverpool and