Complacency or panic. The Conservative party is often said to default to one of these two states. It is also so true of the UK government’s response to coronavirus that it could be one of Boris Johnson’s three-word slogans. Many of its biggest errors are down to insouciance or overreaction.
At first, this was understandable. But there are now signs of the same absence of serious thinking about the next phases. One former minister says: “I hear them talking about levelling up. They still think they can carry on with the policies they had before.”
From economic policy and briefing against the civil service to Brexit, the government is behaving as if it can pick up where it left off before the crisis. In recent days, Downing Street has returned to campaign mode. Challenged during a call with his MPs to lift lockdown more swiftly, Mr Johnson replied: “Look at the polls.”