Tag Archives: Social Well being

How the health crisis could help advance our society’s wellbeing

Everyone can recall the bitter divisions in our society last year. Families were split about Brexit; friends chose which friends to talk to, there was rage and blame ringing across the airwaves and on social media, while In the House of Commons, the MPs tried and tried again without success to reach agreement on whether, when or how to leave the EU.

But this spring the bitterness is gone. That isn’t because of general weary resignation that Brexit is settled. It’s because in facing the pandemic disease to which we are all susceptible millions of us are pulling together in facing up to it. We have surrendered civil liberties, altered our lifestyles, closed businesses, foregone sociable pleasures and knuckled down to hard work or to the new challenge of staying mostly at home. Nobody is pleased about it, but we are generally united in our feelings about its inevitability. Where will this newfound unity, which is so reminiscent of what we understand happened in the two World Wars, take us next?

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 89 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Rose Runswick
    Thank you for saying this, international law is our best hope for a fairer and more peaceful world, I worry the memory of why it came about in the first place i...
  • Tristan Ward
    Sanctions should absolutely continue, but the idea that Britain should not rearm is to repeat the mistakes of the 1930s. Appeasement is not an option....
  • Katharine Pindar
    Paul Barker: you are right, Paul, in the wider world we do seem largely invisible. That was for instance clear in today's Laura Kuennsberg show when, you could ...
  • tom arms
    The first known use of the phrase "May you live in interesting times" was towards the end of the 19th century when Joseph Chamberlain used it in several speech...
  • Andy Daer
    John is, of course, right to remind us all of the need to uphold international law. Today we've seen Trump congratulate the man he had previously distanced h...