Come on Boris, we all need a Great National Reboot!
THERE are certain moments in the year that lend themselves to a change in behaviour. One is right at the start when many people make new year resolutions. Another comes at the beginning of September – what is traditionally referred to as “that back-to-school feeling” when the summer holiday season ends and taking care of business becomes the order of the day once more.
This year the first day of September stands out far more than ever as the moment when a gear change is needed, not merely on an individual basis but across our whole society.
So when Boris Johnson next week returns to Downing Street from his well-deserved holiday in Scotland, he should seize the opportunity offered by the change of season to herald a Great National Reboot. A big speech setting out his plan to bring Britain fully out of its lockdown mentality would be gratefully received by millions.
We have come through the critical phase of the Covid pandemic, case numbers are a tiny fraction of what they were and, while naturally staying vigilant against the threat of a major second wave, the time has come to resume our normal lives to the fullest possible extent.
FOR a start, the metaphor of back-to-school urgently needs to become a literal reality because most pupils have been away from their classrooms for more than five months with many receiving only very scant education during that time.
Mr Johnson and his beleaguered Education Secretary Gavin Williamson face a battle royal with teaching unions to get every school fully open.
So the Prime Minister should grasp the opportunity afforded by the public’s instinct that this is a natural moment for jumping back into action to build overwhelming support for the return of normal classes. He must seek to make the very idea of school gates staying shut to the majority of pupils any longer totally unacceptable.
But it is not only children whose regular patterns of behaviour have been put into hibernation because of the coronavirus.
Millions of adults are still working entirely from home, with millions more still on furlough.Those with jobs to return to should be encouraged back to their workplaces much more vigorously than has been the case to date.
It may very well be that many companies are now content for employees to be in the office for part of the working week and to work at home for the rest of it, but we need to find out just what is the “new normal” here.
Huge questions about public transport capacity and the viability of many city centre businesses that depend on the spending power of commuters need to be answered.
Meanwhile, the NHS continues to operate below capacity as many people voluntarily stay away from hospitals and surgeries because they have been spooked by the idea of catching Covid, while others have not been able to access the prompt diagnostic tests that they need.
So that too must now resume normal service while still having a plan to ramp Covid treatment capacity back up quickly should the dreaded second wave appear.That is a tall order, but not beyond the remarkable professionals who staff our NHS. It simply must be achieved if Britain is not to suffer a huge number of preventable deaths from cancer, heart disease and other nonCovid killer conditions.
The wider economy too needs us to conquer our Covid fears and start to think of the disease as a manageable risk, like so many others we successfully deal with in our daily lives. If the hoped for and muchneeded V-shaped recovery is to transpire then we must banish the bunker mentality and venture out from behind our four walls.
Mr Johnson, the great communicator and inspirer of British politics and the man whose can-do spirit enabled the Brexit deal to be rewritten and the Tories to win a huge parliamentary majority last year, needs to show himself again.
For the key to prosperity lies in optimistic group psychology; what the great 20th century economist John Maynard Keynes called “animal spirits”.
INVESTORS, careerists and entrepreneurs need to believe there is money to be made again and pleasureseekers there is fun to be had.
To deliver this, Mr Johnson must conquer the fears that a spell in intensive care will have sown in his personal psychology.To lead the nation, he must believe that his own traumatic experience is no reason for jettisoning his entire positive philosophy of life.
Daring only to tip-toe forward while being crippled by caution was what did for his predecessor. In Mr Johnson we need to see the bold leadership that will lift us out of the gloom.
‘Daring only to tiptoe on, crippled by caution, did for his predecessor’