We’re publishing an original piece today by Jonny Peppiatt about trust and, in particular, people’s trust in the Government. Can it ever be regained after the past 12 months? What if the public inquiry, assuming there is one eventually, concludes the Government got its response to the virus catastrophically wrong?
I drove up to Uxbridge from Surrey yesterday, and as I whipped around the M25, where there would normally have been about 50 road signs ordering me to STAY HOME SAVE LIVES, there were only two. My reading of this was not that the messaging had been removed by mistake, or anything else so innocent, but, instead, that this massive reduction was part of yet another Government psy-op, subtly gearing up to prepare people for the removal of the stay-at-home order. This cynicism can only be described as a symptom of the lack of trust I have for this Government.
I was slow to question the lockdown in the beginning because I was slow to question my Government, its competence and its motives, and just like in any relationship, losing trust is much easier than regaining it.
Worth reading in full.
