Our sense of unity shows there is such a thing as society
BARELY an hour seems to pass on TV news channels and social media without someone sharing their view of how the Covid-19 pandemic will change society when we return to something resembling normality.
The truth is that none of us knows what Britain will look like when the dust has settled. Chances are the consequences for society and politics have yet to be properly thought through by anyone – quite apart from the economic impact.
Most of the time, the predictions are simply a confirmation of whichever worldview someone already has. For those who believe in a big state or socialism, the likely transformation will be towards a bigger state and socialism. And for the freemarketers and small state evangelists, the conclusion is that our willingness to volunteer shows we prefer that to being ordered around by the state.
One thing does seem pretty clear, however. In our millions, we are daily disproving the premise of most dystopian science fiction. Typically, novels and films about the impact of a major shock to society show anarchy descending within days.
CERTAINLY there is still a long way to go with this pandemic of course, but the response to date of the overwhelming majority has been not to attack each other but to come together.
Yes, there have been any number of selfish “covidiots” who buy all they can from the shops and still ignore the social distancing rules.
But the really significant trend has been people looking out for each other, whether it’s shopping and helping neighbours through newly set-up local WhatsApp groups, or simply leaving notes with their phone numbers offering to be Good Samaritans.
And then there are the 750,000 who have volunteered to help the NHS – so many that the Government has had to stop taking any more names.
That’s why Boris Johnson was so right on Sunday night when, in a video made during his own isolation, he took a swipe at Baroness Thatcher’s famous line that “there is no such thing as society”.
Few politicians have a better track record at discerning the mood of the nation, as his stunning election victories as Mayor of London and then in December show. And when he says that “there really is such a thing as society”, he is deliberately making the contrast.
Baroness Thatcher was one of our greatest leaders. She restored us to prosperity from the chaos and near anarchy of the 1970s. But times change and ideas and language appropriate to one era can be jarringly anachronistic in another. And in Britain today, physically separated but emotionally
‘The response has not been anarchy and chaos but to come together’
united, the notion that there is indeed such a thing as society is almost banal in its obviousness as the true national mood now.
Take last Thursday night’s mass applause for the NHS. We can have our views about the varying efficiency of different models of healthcare. But they are entirely irrelevant at the moment, when as a nation we are bonded by our respect for the people who are risking their own health to keep us alive.
And it’s not just NHS workers. Let’s be honest: which of us paid any attention to supermarket shelf-stackers before? Sure, we might have asked them where something is kept, but would we have regarded them as essential workers?
But today, it would be perverse not to regard them as that. Whether it’s NHS workers, shop staff, refuse collectors, delivery drivers or any number of essential occupations, they may be from different strands in society, but each of these comes together to make us the country we are.
There’s a fascinating contrast between Mr Johnson’s words and David Cameron’s attempts to frame his own policies around the concept of the Big Society back in 2010.
TODAY, our sense of unity – that we’re all in this together – has emerged more naturally. No one has had to tell us: it’s how we are behaving off our own backs. The idea of the Big Society all too obviously was a political device.
What this means for our future is anyone’s guess. My own prediction is that one of the most lasting impacts will be a new respect for people doing work once barely noticed.
Businesses that have done their best to stand by their staff will be lauded and many will shun those which have treated workers with contempt.
It has become a cliché to say Britain will not be the same again. Probably true.
But what it really means is something we’ll only start to discover after this is all over – a sense of collective renewal.