Brace yourself for the UK's COVID catastrophe
We all know COVID has been and is bad. Very bad. But right now it’s not bad enough that all the front pages are dedicated to it. It’s not bad enough that my lovely Reddit home of r/ukpolitics is swamped with COVID content. The first wave was a dreadful shock to the system. But, coaxed out of our house with discounted meals and a bubbly prime minster, we soon got used to the “new normal”. A new normal with a rumbling of daily COVID cases and death statistics in the background.
In the coming weeks we will brutally leave the new normal behind. The combination of hospitals which are full to the brim today and spiralling COVID cases - hinting at the demand on hospital beds to come, compounded by holiday mingling we have yet to see the COVID effects of, points us towards a moment in our national history which will be as bleak as it gets. Deaths will skyrocket to previously unseen levels and hospitals will break beyond their capacity, rather than be stretched to it. It will be unimaginable, it will be devastating and it is sadly inevitable given where we are now.
Despite the new strain, the government is completely responsible for this. By acting fast it is possible to keep COVID at bay. The government chose not to do this. It was too weak to ask the country to swallow its medicine when it was needed (in September), too weak to keep November’s national lockdown going until we were out of the woods, and too weak to ruin the nation’s Christmas.
This government systematically generates national traumas. This is down to Boris’ psychology. He cannot take things seriously. Seducing the person in the room today through humour and play is central to his psyche, and leaves little room for being boring, studying the facts and making difficult decisions which protect the nation from the threats of tomorrow. As a therapist in training, I know that reality has an amazing ability to remind the individual of their own psychological incompleteness. You are faced with the painful consequences of it on repeat, until you reflect and face down your own biggest fears. For Boris this would be standing up to the delusional members of his own party who could punish him and taking the risk of being boring and detailed orientated instead of charming and aloof. As happens as someone progresses in therapy, he would find that reality would respond well to these changes. Unfortunately for us all, and tragically for many, he is stuck in his old ways. As long has he is, the nation will continue to find itself shaken by avoidable traumas. If we are lucky, this coming one will be as bad as it gets.
About The Annoying Centrist: I hold a MSc in Psychology of Mental Health, am training to be an Attachment-Based psychotherapist and have had roughly a decade of personal therapy. I follow all sides of the political spectrum and add a psychological slant to what I see.