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Why libertarianism caused the UK government to fail against Covid
It is the end of January 2021, and the UK has reached an official death toll from Covid of over 100,000 people. People are asking what went so wrong.
Whilst the obvious answers are all about decisions, timing, and science, I believe a deeper problem lies at the heart of this. The UK government is deeply ideological, and focussed on a single issue. There was never any scope in Boris Johnson’s government to achieve anything more than leaving the European Union.
The prime minister and his government are ideological libertarians to the point that the ideology clouds everything else. Brexit is partly caused by that underlying libertarianism — a desire not to be subject to laws and regulations from Europe. For Johnson, Brexit has always been about his own career. Getting Brexit done on time, regardless of the damage it might cause, mattered because it was the promise that finally gave him the keys to Downing Street. I have already written about how insisting on completing a Brexit deal by December 31st, in the midst of the pandemic, was a terrible failure of priorities.
The deadline for a Brexit deal should have been delayed so the government could focus completely on saving lives and the economy during this crisis. Achieving a deal with the EU by December 31st was an entirely politically…
