Fortunately, there are workable alternatives on the table already – see what’s happening at Heathrow and Vienna, and in Iceland.
If, that is, interest rates carry on at rock bottom rates. But we have to take a chance on growing our way out of this crisis.
I just think that it is better to be cautious for a few weeks more, be clear that we are over it, and are not risking a second wave now, or during the winter.
Here, the recovery of our automotive and construction sectors is crucial – firms in the region directly employ around 46,500 people.
The pundits have the UK’s lost output at up to 30 per cent of GDP: personally, I anticipate it to be less, and closer to 10 per cent to 15 per cent.
If it proves a temporary blowout rather than permanent, accumulated debt levels being modestly higher looks manageable.
I am beginning to worry that there may come a time when there will be a need for a more nuanced message – but the public won’t be willing to hear it.
Hopefully it will be crisis averted, and we’ll have a bit more time to fix the hole. But sooner or later, difficult choices on tax and spending are coming.
It should remove those taxes and regulations that will stop business from applying their ingenuity on the problem of rebuilding from the ruins.
We don’t expect the shutdown to last in full until summer. But if it did, Britain might well be moving towards Universal Credit as a basic income.
I’ve faith that people are focused on that bigger picture, which drives reported levels of understanding and appreciation, if not necessarily popularity.
Absent a clearly articulated strategy business uncertainty will heighten, and severe non-compliance is risked
A common threat, especially in the form of a pathogen, flicks switches in our brains, making us less tolerant of dissent.
If employers consider themselves to be heading for catastrophe, it suggests that the wider public will catch up before too long.
We have a tremendous opportunity to lead the response, and we must not cede any ground to a newly energised anti-environment lobby.