Fear’s now our biggest enemy

PLAINLY, the Government is preparing for major changes in the near future. It is right to do so. The major danger from Covid- 19, that it would overwhelm the intensive care wards of the NHS, appears to have receded. Even if that danger returns, we are now far better prepared to cope with it than we were before.

The Health Service, tested in a hard struggle, is now significantly stronger and better equipped than it was six weeks ago.

At the same time the costs of the national lockdown are growing rapidly. However creative Chancellor Rishi Sunak may be with the national credit cards, he faces important decisions about whether the furlough system can be extended into the summer. Whatever he does, the impact on small business, and especially on every business connected with travel and hospitality, is profound and growing.

If we are not careful, the damage from this may undo much of the good done by the slowing of the spread of the virus.

But Ministers are now worried that they did their earlier job too well. A brilliant and simple campaign persuaded the British people to stay at home, far more effectively than the Government imagined it would.

Now polls show millions are still so frightened by coronavirus that they hesitate to go back to work, to travel by public transport or to allow their children to return to school.

These fears should and can be overcome. The simple argument that health and wellbeing are ultimately based on a flourishing busy economy needs to be made with strength and clarity.

The same determined leadership that achieved t his mighty national effort can and should now be deployed to begin t he l ong, s l ow r et urn t o s omething like normality.