Cruel Britannia: Coronavirus lays waste to British exceptionalism22 Jul 2020 21:30
Even as the coronavirus spread beyond China and the emergency accelerated, Britain’s political class seemed curiously unconcerned. They were obsessing, instead, about the important stuff: Would Big Ben be able to bong on the night that the U.K. left the EU, and when could we get our hands on those collectable Brexit 50 pence pieces?
On January 31, Brexit Day, Johnson gave a televised speech and recorded bells chimed out across Parliament Square. The news that the U.K. had registered its first two coronavirus cases went practically unnoticed. Johnson then took a two-week holiday in Kent.
When the prime minister finally made it back to the office, he declared people should go “about their business as usual” — a reflexive nod to the wartime notion of “keep calm and carry on” that was as devoid of sense as it was a reckless waste of precious time.
Outside Britain, his approach was already being condemned as “confused, dangerous and flippant,” but the government, unbothered, ploughed ahead with a uniquely British methodology based on “herd immunity.” A U-turn was only evinced when Imperial College researchers suggested it might claim 250,000 lives and overwhelm the NHS.
This was a global crisis that needed a global response, but Britain’s government, newly reacquainted with its sovereignty, seemed determined to go it alone. The U.K. neglected to join a combined EU ventilator scheme, and Health Secretary Matt Han**** told Britons to summon up their “Blitz spirit” and rise to the occasion, just as their forebears had done in two World Wars.
By late March, as the death toll mounted and Johnson was admitted into intensive care after catching the virus himself, news of events beyond these shores dried up. British exceptionalism had lulled the nation into believing that our circumstances were unique and that this was now our crisis and ours alone.
The truth, of course, is that Britain’s past is quite at odds with the myth. The country has never triumphed alone. In all recent major wars, we have won thanks to alliances and common endeavor.
Britain has no pre-ordained destiny. It did not spring fully formed from the primordial swamp either: It was forged by waves of migrants arriving here from the fifth century onward. The nation’s identity and all that is good within it comes from the fusion of languages, people, food and culture that followed.
Only when Britain breaks free from the chains of make-believe history will the recurring cycle of unwarranted superiority end. Tragically, the deceit runs so deep that it’s hard to imagine that such a day will ever come.
By OTTO ENGLISH 5/5/20,
https://www.politico.eu/article/cruel-britannia-coronavirus-lays-waste-to-british-exceptionali
Sign In
Follow the stocks
