'Stirring up apathy' ; or, why so many people still 'love' the Tories (3)

Before I leave the subject of austerity, I have to note that it was a political masterstroke that local authorities were, in fact, made immediately responsible for implementing most of the cuts. Local authorities in poorer areas depend more on central government grants. Of course, these were cut, and so central government was ultimately responsible ; but in politics, as in so much else in life, it is appearances which count.

The pandemic has reinforced the evacuation of the public realm by making mass political protest very difficult. (Not quite impossible: but the two very distinct groups who have engaged in mass protest during the pandemic - anti-lockdown protesters and the Black Lives Matter movement - have been criticised for breaking lockdown regulations. No doubt the criticism of BLM on this score has had more than one ulterior motive, but Priti Patel et al have been able to capitalise on white resentment which really exists, no matter how discreditable its origins may be). These restrictions on public protest, although well grounded in public health evidence, benefit the government. If the government's politics are the only politics which appear to be going on, that benefits the government. Even the obvious connection between avoidable deaths and the government's negligence does not cause outrage, because a.) what else can you expect of politicians ? b.) what else can you expect of the Tories ? c.) we have to support the government anyway in a national emergency, so it's no use grumbling. Of course, public expectations of Johnson have always been so low that anything short of complete social collapse counts as a success. (His unique selling proposition has always been that he has none of the qualities of a politician, including minimal competence). But this is a personal and ephemeral factor which only exacerbates the propensity to trust the Tories. Johnson's negligence in dealing with the pandemic was thus not only factored in by most people from the outset (and they were prepared to accept his plausible excuse that the pandemic was 'unprecedented').

The very disorientation and confusion caused by incompetent management of the pandemic could rebound to the government's benefit, as it not only increases apathy and disengagement, but also will augment people's relief at the 'magic bullet' of the vaccine. (The government, of course, is gambling on this, and on people's short memories, despite the scientifically attested unknowns concerning the long-term efficacy of vaccines and their effectiveness in reducing transmission). The continuing irritation with politics as a consequence of Brexit cannot be underestimated. The Tories killed the argument over Brexit by supposedly getting it done. The pandemic offers them the opportunity to continue the constriction of political debate and to marginalise alternatives. My intuition suggests that many peiople would welcome the shutting down of politics, or at least its drastic curtailment, for good. Cynicism concerning politics has always been around, but as historians such as Richard Overy and Donald Sassoon (and many others) have noted, in the past many more people were engaged with politics. The reduction of this engagement (although, as BLM and Extinction Rebellion show, it is not entirely absent) is a serious detriment to our common life.

As I have pointed out in Parts 1 and 2 of rhis blogpost, many people have become used to living in a continuous emergency, so the pandemic is a deepening (albeit very serious) of an already desperate situation. Many people, who now remember 'normality' with rose-tinted spectacles, will re-discover this with a shock when 'normality' returns. As was the case with austerity, Conservative politicians have been very successful in emphasising personal responsibility for the spread of the virus, as a way of deflecting attention from other causes, such as employers requiring their employees to return to unsafe workplaces. The Conservative Party seems to know instinctively that a feeling of personal guilt (the other side of the coin to personal responsibility) is a very effective weapon to blunt political protest. After all, if the situation is your own fault, what is the point of political agitation ? You just need a little more 'resilience', 'mental toughness', 'self-care', or whatever the latest pernicious cod-psychology buzzword is.

In the last section of this blogpost, I will examine Brexit, which deserves a section to itself.

(To be continued).