Shaping a better society post pandemic

 The pandemic has been brutal – but we need to use the experience as a major learning exercise for the future. It has put Government and society through a huge x-ray - showing the healthy, functioning positive parts but also exposing areas that need urgent support and attention.

In recent times major crises and wars have precipitated significant societal and political change. The immense human and cross-societal sacrifice of the Second World War led to the establishment of the NHS and the universal welfare state. The collapse of the old-style Keynesian economic model in the 1970s led to an immense peeling back of the state and radical free market philosophy of Mrs Thatcher.

Is the pandemic another turning point in history for radical thinking and policy change?

Interestingly the role and importance of the nation state has been supercharged in the panic of the pandemic. The ever increasing and sprawling influence of the free market across the globe has been stopped temporarily. Many local and national businesses across the world desperately looked to the state for subsidy and support to survive.

Although many theorists had written off the importance of the nation state in the light of global capitalism  - it now had to dust itself off and decisively step in to shore up economies before local businesses went down the plug hole.

And as we now look to the future, the state can, and should, use its new found power and leverage to lead the  way out with radical and positive thinking – with its finger on the pulse of society as it goes.

But it should embrace some key issues.

First, society has shifted its focus to the things that really matter.  People have shown some strong qualities many thought we had lost – community spirit, humility, resourcefulness, and kindness. We also owe a real debt to our front-line workers – some of whom work in low paid roles. We cannot forget their dedication to the national effort. They risked their lives.   

Second – punitive austerity is not the way out. It didn’t work in the UK before. In a big way. It won’t miraculously work this time. Growth through investment in public infrastructure is the best long-term way to reduce our debt. We cannot be fooled by ridiculous and disingenuous metaphors of the need to pay off our credit card as quickly as possible. This is nonsense and not how national economies or recoveries work.

Post pandemic policy in UK needs to reflect how we have all changed over the past year.  

It is a once in a generation opportunity to unify the country behind some great values we thought we had lost.

Photograph - Simon Wilkes