We cannot make everyone unafraid, says Army minister

PEOPLE will have to make their own judgments about the risks of coronavirus, the Armed Forces minister has said, as there is no prescription for “dealing with fear”.

James Heappey, a former officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, told The Daily Telegraph: “As someone who has served in some slightly dangerous places, I had no idea until I got there, and I had to accept that risk.

“I had no idea how I would manage my fear – you can’t prescribe to people dealing with their fear, dealing with risk – it’s a deeply personal thing.”

His comments came as Boris Johnson continued to ease gradually the lockdown, with the reopening of nonessential shops next month.

However, an Ipsos MORI survey this month suggested 60 per cent of British people would be uncomfortable carrying out activities such as visiting bars, restaurants, or using public transport.

Mr Heappey cautioned that while he personally felt “perfectly comfortable going on with life with the mitigations that are in place”, it was not for him to say how someone else should feel.

“What Government can do is to encourage schools, businesses, society at large, to put in place mechanisms that seek to reassure, seek to mitigate, as much of that risk as possible. Then you have to leave people to make their own judgments about how they are going to accept that risk and how they are going to feel about it,” he said.

In May, factions of the Armed Forces returned to training, another area of risk Mr Heappey acknowledged had to be mitigated. He said: “When you’ve done all that you can do and there is still risk, that’s the point at which you have to look those people in the eye and say, ‘the operational requirement demands, I’m afraid, that we accept that risk for you to keep going’.

“The great thing about our nation’s Armed Forces is that when you look them in the eye and you tell them that, they say ‘absolutely’, and ‘we’re on it’.”