Friday 20 March 2020

Waging No More?

Someone was going to have to be the first Prime Minister who was younger than I was. Last week's Budget, ending the era that had begun with the Budget of December 1976, made a very strong case for who that was going to be. And as of today, there can be no remaining doubt. Rishi Sunak has changed the weather. This crisis will pass. But as Milton Friedman said, "Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program." And we are about to get a very great many of those.

Today is Saint Cuthbert's Day. When he did self-isolation, then he did it properly. If the Universal Basic Income were indeed to be brought in, and it will have to be so soon enough, then I might emulate him. You need not bother sending the King to beg me to emerge back into the world and become a bishop. Cuthbert was dead within three years of having said yes to that one. Leave me alone. Alone with the irony that there had been no church services over Easter 2020, when Pontius Pilate had been proved right all along. Now wash your hands.

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