In An Introduction to the Political State of Great Britain Samuel Johnson, commenting on the behavior of British colonists in America, wrote:
No people can be great who have ceased to be virtuous.
Well, I guess that depends both on whether you think virtue matters in the first place and what you think defines greatness. For Johnson, clearly, virtue was precisely what characterised those who achieve greatness. It had to do with character first and foremost.
I find this a little disturbing in the current context. I have spoken many times in the House of Lords and elsewhere about the need in a democracy for the people to be trusted with the truth. I might be naive here, but I actually think that people can be very forgiving of error and failure if it is confessed with humility and candour. At the very least, this sort of honesty allows attention to be paid to the substance of the matter in hand and not to the various ways of trying to avoid taking responsibility for it.
I am a little puzzled, then, about how the UK government is handling the coronavirus pandemic. Or, to be more precise, I don’t quite know how to judge the science around the catastrophe as I am not a scientist. My concern lies with the language, presentation and obfuscation we witness every day as ministers seek to show they are in control. For, they either can’t or won’t answer the questions put to them by journalists. Repeating mantras about how “incredibly hard” everyone is working or how “incredibly determined we are” to get sufficient PPE, extend protection to the care sector, expand testing to unachievable levels in too-short timeframes, does not begin to address the questions actually being put. We expect everyone to be working hard – that isn’t the point.
And here is the rub. The Prime Minister, we were told repeatedly, was “in charge”, running the government, leading the ministerial team … when it was obvious he could be doing no such thing from his hospital bed. But, he didn’t delegate the running of government to anyone else, apparently. Why not? Does he not trust them? Or is something else going on here? If he was in charge, then he has to be responsible for what happened; if he was not in charge (because he was too unwell), then what sort of leadership effectively leaves (or creates) a vacuum in terms of accountability? You can’t have it both ways.
It’s a bit like Donald Trump boasting about the strength of the US economy when there is good news, but blaming everyone but himself when something goes wrong with it. It is bizarre.
Now, this isn’t a party political point. After the complete absence of any credible Opposition during the last four years, politics and government have not been well served in any respect. Good government in a parliamentary democracy depends upon the sharpening of policy by accountability to a credible testing of argument. The demos is served by better policy making and implementation when governance and its articulation in the public square (especially the media and the academy) recognize that one day the history will be written and the truth will out.
So, why the feeling that in an effort to demonstrate authority and control we are being taken for fools? The quickest way to sow discontent or undermine the consistent messaging of public health officials and ministers is for people to suspect that “they” can’t be trusted. Holding the line then becomes harder as people decide to do their own thing and make their own judgment. In other words, why don’t ministers stop announcing ‘today’s’ great investment of billions of pounds and level with the public. Why not admit that mistakes were made early in the coronavirus pandemic that will have cost lives? Why not just tell the truth so that we can turn attention away from the past errors and place it firmly on how to get through the current challenges with as many people on board as possible?
Which brings us back to Samuel Johnson and the Wisdom literature of the Hebrew Scriptures. Education is less about filling empty vessels with information or (even) knowledge, and more about building people’s character through the encouragement of virtue. At the root of virtuous living and speaking lies the need for truth telling and truth hearing. Both are vital. Both seem now to be in danger of neglect or dismissal.
If we want to secure a strong democracy for the future, we must start to demand virtue now, and to question the obfuscation that does not like to be held to account. It cannot wait until everything goes back to ‘normal’ – because it won’t.
