As isolation and decline looms, confusion reigns in Covid Britain...

There are certainly countries in the world even more divided than the UK. But there is no country more dazed and confused.

To move in the past 15 years from the certainty and solidity of the Blair premiership to the sorry state of affairs that passes for government today is an almost unimaginable decline. This is a country particularly badly hit by the financial crisis, demoralised by years of austerity and seemingly unable to prevent every administration we elect being significantly worse than the one that preceded it.

We’ve witnessed a growth of nationalism which culminated in the murder of a British MP shortly before the tragic decision to leave the EU.

We endured the years of torment and torpor that followed, when Brexit was the only endless topic of conversation.

We saw the major opposition party taken over by a leftist sect, while the governing Tories drifted ever further to the right.

And now, as a corollary of all the above – or perhaps as a punishment for it – we have the most incompetent government in living memory presiding over the coronavirus crisis.

Just as shellshocked veterans emerged from the carnage of the First World War to be confronted with the Spanish Flu in 1918 and 1919, there is a sense in which Covid has caught the UK at its absolute lowest ebb one hundred years later.

With Trump single-handling trying to destroy American democracy, China achieving ever greater economic, military and cultural dominance, and the UK detaching itself from the EU, there is nothing on the horizon other than isolation and decline.

When we British take our post-Brexit begging bowl to the rich man’s table, we might find a few crumbs proffered – the 0.07% of GDP granted by Japan, for instance. But realistically, we know that our only chance of being fed lies now in the servants’ quarters below stairs. Or through our own toil in the ill-kept allotment out back.

Of course, Boris Johnson’s bluster and bullshit over Covid-19 has led to a decline in Tory fortunes since the election at the end of last year. Yet still a good proportion of the British public – 40% by most reputable polls – places its trust in this government of mixed messages, testing fiascos, tardy apps and crony contracts.

I guess confused and frightened people often don’t know where to turn.

As we head deeper into the autumn period, the one thing we do know is that nothing good lies ahead and that further confusion will reign. 

Infections will rise and youngsters will party. University lecturers will teach students 100 metres away over Zoom. Hospitalisation will increase and people will drive 100 miles as the corona flies to get a test. And those testing centres will be turned into Brexit car parks.

We'll tell ourselves it will all be over by Christmas. Although we won't be sure who's going to be able to join us for the turkey and trimmings.