@Holyrivolli
I find it staggering how we as a country seem to be sleepwalking into an authoritarian state and so many people are willingly giving up hard fought for freedoms in order to feel safe which in itself is such a nebulous term. The fear that has been caused by such a relatively benign virus has shown real flaws in how western democracies are structured. Of course it is sad for the families who lose a granny prematurely but shutting down huge swathes of the economy and the inability of our health/ social care services to cope with a virus that is not actually that serious to most people is shocking.
I can’t agree with this.
It’s precisely because our country, our European counterparts and the US, can’t behave authoritatively that we have ended up with a hotch potch of inadequate responses that don’t work in terms of health systems or economic systems. They just allow us to mildly mitigate because we can’t stop people socialising or make them be accountable.
Democracies who are authoritarian, because that’s culturally acceptable, did a better job. They are able to impose compulsory testing, tracing apps and forced quarantine. This meant they didn’t need to use stay at home measures.
Where as we, in the UK, told people to stay at home. Or not, because we weren’t going to stop you or penalise you. The police chiefs basically stood up and said this when some constabularies didn’t get the message.
But in March people were staying home anyway. Business was going to suffer. At least with lockdown they were entitled to government support. Because it was government directed.