COVID-19 UK Political Analysis by Tim Hames – 16th October

This has been the week when the policy divide between maximising public health and minimising economic damage has come out into the open more starkly than before. It is of little comfort to UK ministers that their counterparts in other countries are facing a very similar situation. The latest version of a strategy for England is another attempt to find a middle option between measures that would have the strong sense of lockdown-lite to them, or a change of course in the direction of keeping the economy as open as is possible and seeking to prevent those most likely to enter hospital and then risk death as a result of contracting COVID-19 from acquiring the virus in the first place. It is completely understandable that ministers should want to “split the difference” for as long as it is plausible and possible to do so. With luck, they might still yet be able to avoid a more awkward choice. The risk of the middle option disappearing is, though, very real indeed.