I read Laura Dodsworth's new book over the weekend and, allowing as much as I can for confirmation bias etc, I think it is a brilliant expose of the way in which the Government has (in her phrase) weaponised fear to control the population since March 2020. At the very least, the case she raises is so serious that I hope that her wish that this be the subject of a public inquiry is granted.
Very sensibly, she makes her argument primarily about the unethical use of fear and does not get into a debate on the merits/demerits of lockdown itself (although she makes her views on that plain, including in an appendix). Approached in this way, the book becomes a forensic examination of how and why the British became the most frightened people in the world.
I heartily recommend it.
I have long thought that the Government's actions have been totalitarian in effect (if not, initially, in intent) but the parallel she draws with the methods used by cults to inculcate new members seems to me to be an even better analogy as it helps explain why so many people in this country have become lockdown lovers, clamouring for more of this revolting medicine.
Again, I don't think the Government acted with this purpose in mind (although the thrill of exercising supreme power over people for some of the inadequates in the Government cannot be discounted). I mean, unlike most cults, it was not established so that the cult leader could enjoy the favours of many different women (er, hang on a minute...).
Thanks for the review and recommendation. I haven't read the book so far, only a synopsis in a newspaper.
I love your concluding sentence 🙂
My copy should be arriving this week
I'm interested that you don't think the government acted with the intention of imposing totalitarianism. I thought that as soon as furlough was announced, that was the day I became very scared. You don't announce a long term financial package if you're just trying to assess the damage a new virus might cause.
Matt Hancock said on 31 Jan that if covid spread, they would take steps that would cause social and economic disruption.
Well, I think there is a distinction to be drawn between whether the Government realised that what they were doing was authoritarian/totalitarian in effect, which must have been obvious even to the most dull-witted Minister, and whether the Government set out to implement a pre-conceived plan to impose totalitarianism on the British people. Whilst I can see why a narrative along that second alternative can be constructed around what has happened, my own view is that this is not the explanation. I think that what we have suffered since March 2020 is the result of panic, hysteria, incompetence and cock-up (with a dash of power-lust amongst a few Ministers).
Well, I think there is a distinction to be drawn between whether the Government realised that what they were doing was authoritarian/totalitarian in effect, which must have been obvious even to the most dull-witted Minister, and whether the Government set out to implement a pre-conceived plan to impose totalitarianism on the British people. Whilst I can see why a narrative along that second alternative can be constructed around what has happened, my own view is that this is not the explanation. I think that what we have suffered since March 2020 is the result of panic, hysteria, incompetence and cock-up (with a dash of power-lust amongst a few Ministers).
I could see this argument in April 2020, in spite of the Act being in place for two years. But it was obvious by June 2020 that several governments were testing the boundaries for future power.
