Lockdown strategy please

The government seems to have a total blind spot regarding the damage being done by lockdown – the effects on mental health, the rising levels of domestic and other forms of abuse.  

Then there is the future of the economy, the longer we remain locked down, the higher will be the cost in terms of job losses etc.

Finally, the lockdown policy has worked so well because people have followed the advice, practically to the letter. Failure to be seen to be moving the country out of lockdown risks the government losing its authority. The lockdown may then just crumble, with people going back to work and coming out regardless. What will the government do in response, arrest everyone and put them in those already overcrowded and Covid -19 vulnerable prisons?

No, the time has come for some grown up politics – treat the people as adults, stop the silly militaristic language of conflicts and outline the way forward out of lockdown.

 

Published – 30/4/2020 - Independent