Is Lockdown generally something favoured by those who are generally left of centre/public sector?

[Treesofwood]

I would say I am definitely left leaning, and am also not in support of lockdowns as a strategy. Infact in some of my dealings on here I have been accused of being pro brexit, hard right. Why would that be? Can you be left wing and pro freedom or are the two actually mutually exclusive? And what does Brexit have to do with any of it?

I am very left wing, do not work in public sector, and am pro lockdown.

I have worked throughout.

I saw a survey which showed labour voters were significantly more likely to wear masks and obey other Covid-related rules. Left wing people tend to prioritise supporting the vulnerable over economic growth, so it wouldn’t be surprising if we tended to be more comfortable with lockdowns.

I'm left wing but don't favour lockdown because of all the people who will lose their jobs. I work in the public sector, and shouldn't be affected but I also give a shit about people who aren't me.

I'm not in favour of lockdown.

I am in favour of people being supported financially if they are considered vulnerable and wish to shield and their jobs being protected.
I am in favour of children who are vulnerable or have vulnerable family members not being threatened with school fines.

I don't understand why it's too dangerous for extended family and friends to mix indoors and yet vulnerable people have no choice but to go in to busy workplaces. No one should be compelled to shield but there should be an option.

I’d describe myself as soft left. Safe public sector job and extremely (rabidly!) anti-Brexit. DP and I are fairly insulated from the effects of lockdown so far (DP slightly less so as he’s private sector). I am totally against any further dull lockdowns, and was very sceptical about the original one.

I’ve found the whole pandemic experience pretty disconcerting, as many of the lefty public figures I’d previously have aligned myself with are very vocally pro-lockdown, and I’ve felt increasingly alienated from what I saw as my ‘tribe’. It’s a weird experience suddenly finding yourself agreeing with Brexity Tory grandees!

But irl things are very different - most of my lefty and centrist friends are anti-lockdown - some very vehemently so. What we all have in common is preschool/primary school aged children, who have struggled during lockdown and who will be paying the economic cost of this in the future. Also dual income families trying to juggle work and homeschooling (DD is only a toddler so we’re not quite there yet).

One thing I’ve learned from all this is that I am instinctively very, very anti-authoritarian.

I am left of centre and public sector and do not support it. The job losses that come with it have plunged so many families into poverty and benefits reliance that I don't see how anyone who calls themself a socialist can be in favour.

And my public sector experience tells me that local councils are broke and the worst is yet to come. People have no idea of the wrecking ball that's going to be taken to local services next year. It's fucking heartbreaking.

Ha whoops - dull lockdowns definitely works but should read full!

I'm left wing and work in public sector (of course we are affected by problems in the economy as well we've just suffered 10 years of needless austerity!)

I'm not in favour of another lockdown but I will follow rules that are difficult for me personally for the greater good and protection of society and its vulnerable members.

I think employers that took furlough money now need to prove they had reduced income during lockdown justifying laying off staff or pay it back - as otherwise its just tax payers money going to bigger profits for owners mainly based on people being furloughed and the ones left doing the extra work that was still there.
Furlough should have been just for businesses that had to close!

I don't think another one will work now. This government has lost authority over the way they've handled things and too many people just won't

Generally yes. It's a question of whether you worry about how taxes will be raised if the country is poorer or how we will spend taxes if people are poorer, more or less.

I always find it odd that those whose entire income is derived through tax (public sector workers) don't seem to worry as much about the country's ability to raise taxes.

A lot of lefties work in the third sector though, which is going to tank

@ChristmasCarcass

The Tory party itself is split between the retirees who want everybody locked down, and the business interests who want everything completely open. So I really don’t think it’s as straightforward as right/left.

The “covid is made up” brigade do tend to be right-wingers, probably because it goes along with the more rabid end of Brexit, Trump QAnon stuff and anti-Semitic conspiracies online. But then you have Jeremy Corbyn’s brother, who is presumably left wing, so even those guys aren’t easy to pigeonhole.

This is a good summary.

I suspect those able to WfH make up a significant proportion of the anti-lockdown contingent.

I'm left-of-centre, though not public sector. I only started a grad job in London last year and this has pretty much stalled career progression and the job I have now is fairly insecure. I lost the job I was doing at the time and lockdown caused me immense mental health problems, lack of confidence and weight gain! I'm not in favour of further lockdowns or overly rigorous restrictions for this reason, though I understand why we need to slow infections and prevent deaths.

Parents are more right-wing and probably in favour of prolonged lockdown. Not rich, but my mum has a good pension and my Dad a secure job, with no major money issues. Lockdown doesn't have much impact on how they live their lives at all as they aren't social outside the house and rarely see anyone anyway.

So I wouldn't necessarily say left vs. right issue. More the case of how much lockdown is negatively impacting your life.

It's not a left right thing, I'm from a tory stronghold pro Brexit area, majority are in support of lockdown. Not everyone of course.

I always find it odd that those whose entire income is derived through tax (public sector workers) don't seem to worry as much about the country's ability to raise taxes.

Yes me too.

I guess they’ve historically been well cushioned against downturns, but I suspect they won’t know what hit them when the full economic costs of Covid start to be made plain.

Left wing people tend to prioritise supporting the vulnerable over economic growth, so it wouldn’t be surprising if we tended to be more comfortable with lockdowns.

This is a staggeringly simplistic analysis. My most left wing friends are reeling from the degree that the ‘non Covid’ vulnerable have been thrown under the bus by lockdown. They are very strongly against it.

I guess they’ve historically been well cushioned against downturns, but I suspect they won’t know what hit them when the full economic costs of Covid start to be made plain

Or after ten years of austerity, much of the public sector is already completely inured to pay freezes and restructuring/redundancies. I wouldn’t call a 38% cut in council funding “well-cushioned”.

I’m left wing, extremely anti-Brexit and work from home anyway so didn’t suffer from lockdown from a financial perspective. It knocked me into a depression I wasn’t expecting as my husband continued to work full time in his public sector workplace and I found myself all at once being at home non stop with the children and I felt my whole identity completely disappearing. I worry about the effect of lockdown on children and young people very much. I also worry desperately about my vulnerable parents getting exposed to Covid. I worry about the widespread devastation that lockdown will cause and the whole sectors which face collapse. I want restaurants, cinemas, gyms, theatres and airlines to survive because those are all the things I enjoy and that I think enrich our lives. The threat to arts and culture is horrifying. But I also fear the NHS being overwhelmed and I remember the horrific scenes coming from Italy in March and I don’t want that to happen.

I would bear another lockdown if it would be used to actually establish a functioning test and trace system but I don’t see the point of us enduring it if the government squanders it again.

I think closing schools is extremely damaging. I can’t bear to think of what it would mean for vulnerable children in particular. From a left wing perspective, the suffering of the poor and the way lockdowns increase poverty while enriching the super wealthy further is despicable. But I don’t see the option to carry on as normal and let the unimaginable consequences of a rampant virus happen as any more palatable.

Basically, I don’t see an answer. Just hoping for good news of a vaccine soon.

I'm left of centre, rapidly anti Brexit and very much against lockdown.
I'm in Scotland and most of my peers are very pro SNP and pro lockdown, so I've felt quite alienated and a bit in shock at suddenly being in agreement with members of the Tory back bench.

@110APiccadilly

I think, as a very broad generalisation, a lot of the public sector are a bit insulated from the economic effects. People who go into the public sector (at least into the civil service) also have a tendency to think governments can fix everything, which, IME, is also a bit of a leftwing tendency.

What I do find particularly strange are (some of) my most leftwing friends on Facebook, who in January apparently thought Boris was a literal fascist, and by March were desperate for him to enact legislation so sweeping and draconian most fascists would only be able to dream of it.

But it's for our own safety so it's okay! /s

Left wing people tend to prioritise supporting the vulnerable over economic growth, so it wouldn’t be surprising if we tended to be more comfortable with lockdowns.

I really struggle to understand this POV, lockdown has been absolutely devastating for many vulnerable people, not the covid vulnerable but those at risk of DA, children at risk of abuse - physical, sexual, children going hungry, job losses, risks to the roof over their heads, poverty, suicide, mental health issues, other physical health issues - the list goes on and on and on.

So no I will never be comfortable with continuing lockdowns, because all those things matter too.

I'm public sector. I'm anti Brexit and pro lockdown.

In my opinion the virus under control to stop the NHS becoming paralysed and thus killing people who have illnesses that can be cured in a normal winter. From pure lack of staff and facilities.

If the current pathetic, too late response to every increase in infection and deaths is to carry on - business will be fucked anyway.

How many people are there going to be going to the shops/restaurants/bars etc . ? They will lose staff to illness and customers will be too sick/scared/dead to spend money in these places. They're simply won't be enough of the 'gung ho' out there to keep these businesses afloat. Because carry in as we are - we are on a trajectory of unmitigated horror. A lockdown won't be required by gov as most will make that decision for themselves..

Am very left, nhs worker but can mostly work from home currently. I'm very divided, I am concerned about both the cost of locking down and those of not. Work in mh with vulnerable people so am seeing some of the real costs of lockdown, have a lot of friends who work in hospitality whose jobs are gone or businesses wont survive the winter, but am also realistic about the ability of the nhs to deal with covid +flu and keep doing all the other things that need to be happening for patients. I'm also vulnerable and had covid in march and it was awful and am still struggling now so it's made me quite anxious about the prospect of people I know getting sick and thinking they wont cope with it. I can really see both sides and that feels quite hard, there is not an easy answer.

The most voracious supporters of Freeeeedddom are on the right. Probably because it's the poor who are most likely to die (or end up disabled with Long Covid). It's also that the rich can afford the financial consequences of 'letting it rip through'. Middle-class New Labour types also want it to rip through because they don't live in the deprived high density parts of cities (except for some who are young and healthy) and so can gamble other people's lives from a safer distance.

I respect the right wing Brexiter anti containment lot more than the others. At least the first group are honest about their motivations.

The government is under pressure to do nothing from the (economically short-sighted) right wing backbench 1922 committee. These people live in the less affected shires (or abroad in tax havens).
They won't suffer the consequences - including economic - of an uncontained virus.

Meanwhile the other side don't want lockdown. Or at least not an ongoing ineffective one. What they want is one short but proper one - which means restricted borders (with proper quarantime for essential travel like food) that stay restricted after lockdown eases. Add in a functioning test, track, and trace system and Bob's your uncle. If we'd done that sooner, it would mostly normal by now.