Interesting to read the European perspective on looking at the UK right now..
www.politico.eu/article/boris-johnson-risks-dragging-brits-out-of-coronavirus-lockdown-against-their-will/
"...sky-high support for lockdown measures"
"...a larger and more entrenched phenomenon in the public psyche. Compared with other countries, the British public is being taken out of lockdown against its will."
73 percent of the British people want the government to limit the spread of the disease and prevent deaths, even if that means a recession or depression and major job losses. Other countries are much less sure — only 44 percent say this in Sweden, 49 percent in Germany.
The U.K. is also uniquely united on this, with people across all age groups prioritizing saving lives, bucking the trend in other nations where younger people are keener to put the economy first.
"There are different views as to why this is. The obvious answer is the U.K. death toll, but other countries with high numbers, such as the United States, do not share the same sentiment to such a degree. There is no clear pattern related to how relaxed or severe different lockdowns have been either.
Focus groups have shown that Johnson’s experience of the virus altered views of the risk in the U.K., with its image morphing from a mild, flu-like illness into an indiscriminate killer that could knock anyone down much more easily than had been assumed.
Whatever the explanation, this difference matters because the British public wants the government to put their lives above the economy. Their benchmark for success for the government in this crisis is not economic growth, nor merely stopping NHS capacity from being overwhelmed, but deaths coming down and staying down.
In Germany and Sweden, the public are aligned with their governments. As lockdowns are lifted — or in the case of Sweden, measures stay relaxed"