How the coronavirus crisis will change British politics forever

Trying times always alter how the country sees its policies, writes Sean O'Grady

A shift to the left is far from inevitable (PA)

Given the experience of the last few weeks, not to mention the last few turbulent years, it seems a bit of a mug’s game to venture any kind of predictions about the political future.

Still, one thing that long history and expert opinion does have confidence about is that the Covid-19 pandemic is essentially a finite event. Though it will be a long haul, and the development of a vaccine will probably take a year or more (so they say), eventually political, economic life will return to normal. However, as with every other war that has inflicted suffering on the civilian population, there will be changes in public attitudes, within parties and within government.

There is already an upsurge in public affection for the NHS, and support for our other essential public services – education, transport and social care, for example. “Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ’till it’s gone,” as the old song goes, and that certainly feels the case today. There is no public opposition to the way the state has had to take back control over public-private partnerships in the NHS and on the railways, for example. Would we necessarily precisely go back to the way things were run before the coronavirus crisis?