It was “the most commonly reported activity in the two to seven days prior to symptom onset” for infected individuals in the contact tracing system.
I was regaled with horror story after story on access to even existing testing. Confidence in the “moonshot” is non-existent.
Modest consolidation over decades is one thing; large increases over a Parliament would be quite another.
Wind and nuclear power both produce electricity. But if someone said we needed a tax on wind power to subsidise nuclear, you’d think they were mad.
Precisely what does Johnson think was wrong with the 2010-2018 deficit reduction agenda? Who knows? The Tories don’t have a clear economic story.
What normalisation should mean is the return to a functioning market economy where our wants and needs are met in today’s circumstances.
He wanted the CMA to be both an aggressive consumer champion and decision-maker – “too much prosecution, judge, and jury” according to some.
The Government can avoid worsening it. But that requires as bold a deviation from ordinary policy as the extraordinary relief efforts we saw before.
Impacts on the margin shouldn’t be used to mask the big picture: private activity mimicked shutdowns before they happened.
If it proves a temporary blowout rather than permanent, accumulated debt levels being modestly higher looks manageable.
Absent a clearly articulated strategy business uncertainty will heighten, and severe non-compliance is risked
None the less, while lockdown alleviates the worst, it doesn’t deliver the best. The Government should probe less costly ways to achieve the same ends.
The theoretical aim of policy then should be bridging over what is hopefully a short pause in activity – eliminating near-term distress for households and businesses.
A home-focused industrial policy hardly saved China from this epidemic. And openness and markets ensure diversity of supply – particularly in medicine and food.
My answer would be “maybe, provided the spending or tax cuts significantly improved our growth potential.”