When it's all over...........

The coronavirus outbreak is an appalling human catastrophe but its political ramifications will, sooner or later, have to be confronted. During the crisis, of course, our focus needs to be on ensuring that people are safe and well, that medical staff have the protection and resources that they need, that people who are ill receive the care and treatment they depend on, and those who cannot work and/or are adversely affected receive the financial and emotional support they require. However those of us who have been stuck at home, away from any obvious firing line, now have had plenty of time to think about the kind of country we want to live in once this pandemic has run its course. We've had plenty of time to consider how we want our society and politics to change. We've also had plenty of time to make note of the selfish and entitled behaviour of those at the top of the social and political food chains.

There have certainly been many, many instances of coronavillains, and this crisis still has a long way to run. We’ve seen the grasping entitlement of some super wealthy businesspeople, who have been laying off staff without pay while insisting that they personally will take no financial hit to their obscenely large fortunes. We’re looking at you Richard Branson, Gordon Ramsay, and Tim Martin. We’re looking at the call centres that have insisted that their staff come into work, crammed into offices next to one another to deal with phone calls that they could be dealing with at home. We’re looking at Next. We’re looking at Sports Direct. It seems that we live in a British state which, when it calls upon the citizens to make sacrifices, some of the rich think that ordinary people should sacrifice their health and their lives for their bank balances.

We've seen the incompetents in government from the top down get it wrong time and time again. We've seen them dissemble and shift blame on others. We've seen them overpromise and underdeliver. But why would we expect anything different? They were elected on a single premise - to deliver Brexit - and not to govern in the wider sense. We are looking at you, Boris Johnson. We are looking at you, Michael Gove, Dominic Cummings, Matt Hancock and the rest of the sorry crew.

It's an oft quoted view that 'things will never be the same'. That may be the case and we should start talking about ways to ensure and nourish equality of opportunity. What steps can be taken to ensure that the likes of Tim Martin, for example, don’t treat their staff so poorly? How can we reform our tax laws to ensure that the rich pay their fair share?  Are we still comfortable with such extensive and intra-linked globalisation? Do we finally recognise the importance of our public services and realise that, if you want the level of service we all seem to desire, we've got to pay more? And lots, lots more.  Step forward, Keir Starmer, and start articulating what needs to be done. The crisis may have brought out the best of the majority but it has also revealed, on occasion, the undercurrents of hatred, racism, sectarianism, homophobia, sexism, greed and elitism that are still there. That is not the society we want to be.

We may be stuck indoors, but that means we’ve got plenty of time to think and dream of the better country that we can build on the other side of this crisis. If not now, when?