A time for cool heads and wisdom, not wild comparisons to WW2

ARE we, as a country, in danger of making a drama out of a crisis? The essence of Government, when shocks and dangers threaten, is calm competence, directing resources intelligently to reduce their impact and help their victims.

And much of what Boris Johnson’s Government has done about the coronavirus fits that mould. Medical experts are clearly being listened to, and science is at the heart of decision-making.

As far as reasonably possible, precautions are being taken against realistic dangers. Contingency plans are being prepared for worse possibilities.

But in other quarters there is a taste for panic.

Dr Richard Hatchett, from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, recently went on television to say: ‘I don’t think it is a crazy analogy to compare this to World War Two.’

Let us hope he is wrong. About 75million men, women and children died in that war, which lasted six long years. Many British people had to live through nights when the sky was full of bombers dropping high explosives or incendiaries on their homes.

Whole cities were destroyed and formerly prosperous nations became rubble-strewn deserts, only rescued from misery by enormous American subsidies. Would those who went through this think it ‘crazy’ to equate their experiences with the coronavirus? Quite possibly. So those with public platforms should hesitate before saying such things.

This kind of language, and this kind of attitude, may be seen by some as necessary to shock the public out of alleged complacency. But hysteria spreads all too easily across social media, a haunted cauldron of rumour and frenzy which can give the appearance of substance to all kinds of twaddle.

Exaggerated fear of disease also provides an easy, often false excuse for every delay and failure, and the pretext for a whole new raft of restrictions, closures and delays.

But are the public complacent? Mostly not. The simple advice to us all, to wash our hands more frequently, is easy to follow and highly effective. Millions are heeding it. Before the new virus became a problem, hospitals were coping quietly with hundreds of victims of ordinary flu. Most people stay sensibly calm, keeping matters in proportion. They see that there is no sense in adding serious economic damage to the existing dangers of infection. The Queen and Prince Charles, dutiful as ever, understand this well and are continuing to fulfil their engagements.

That is as it should be. Civilisation is based, in the end, on selfrestraint in all things. Sounding the alarm loudly may make those who do so feel important. But does it really serve the public good? Since others have mentioned World War Two, it is worth remembering that it was at least partly won by calm and stoicism.

A party out of tune with the nation...

THE whole point of the Labour Party is to be a democratic but radical force for change. Especially in the 1940s, it has spoken for the nation, and achieved reforms which turned out to be both popular and necessary.

Yet as a new poll shows, its machine and membership are now largely in the hands of people who are ashamed of their own country’s history and even want to get rid of the most successful constitutional Monarchy in the world. Most of the party’s natural supporters have no interest in this dreary, rather spiteful form of Leftism, and why should they?

Unless and until Labour can get back into step with the British people, it is rightly doomed to be a failed fringe party.