Lord Sumption's lecture on the govt response to COVID-19 is definitely worth watching. Makes crystal clear there has been an unconstitutional power-grab by the executive and agencies like the police.

I do disagree with him in some respects though...



1/8

First, I think he underplays the fault of parliament in permitting the executive power-grab with scarcely a peep. Had MPs resisted, this would not have happened, at least to this extent. MPs are failing in their role to represent the citizenry.

2/8

Second, I think he vastly overstates the risk of totalitarianism. The problem is not, as Sumption claims, a Hobbesian one, where citizens have given up their freedoms for security. That assumes the existence of an authoritative sovereign that represents society to itself.

3/8

In reality, the state's authority is clearly weak. Where citizens feel the state represents them, extraordinary measures and coercion are unnecessary (cf. Sweden). The UK state cannot effectively coerce its citizens: its rules are widely mocked and disregarded.

4/8

London's cack-handed authoritarianism has also fuelled regional separatism and hastened the UK's fragmentation. For 2 weeks it could barely impose its will on Manchester.

The state's claim to authority hasn't been the people but "The Science". But that, too, has collapsed.

5/8

Scientists clearly got a lot wrong at the start of the pandemic and are now deeply divided over how to proceed. Experts on public health, the economy, etc, don't agree. The govt is torn between competing forms of expertise and criticised whenever it "disobeys" SAGE.

6/8

So, contra Sumption, what we have is not a Hobbesian state drunk on its own authority and thus predating on people's liberties, but a weakness or even vacuum of authority, which expresses itself in ever more authoritarian measures to impose order without consent.

7/8

Finally, Sumption bashes the public for expressing strong support for tough measures, arguing this is how freedom dies. But is it surprising that the people crave authority? Of course they want strong government in a crisis. But they're not actually getting it.

8/8