Ben Lowry: Pain must be shared if we have long lockdowns, including among public sector and starting with political pay cuts

Since early on in the Covid crisis, like lots of people I have wondered whether lockdowns are the best way to go.
By Ben Lowry
Published 21st Nov 2020, 12:06 BST
Updated 21st Nov 2020, 13:10 BST
An empty New Bond Street, in London on Tuesday, as England continued a four week national lockdown. Lockdown patently works if you are prepared to be brutal about it but the question is whether the cure is worth it. And if it is, then the impact on people needs to be shared more widely. Photo: Dominic Lipinski/PA WireAn empty New Bond Street, in London on Tuesday, as England continued a four week national lockdown. Lockdown patently works if you are prepared to be brutal about it but the question is whether the cure is worth it. And if it is, then the impact on people needs to be shared more widely. Photo: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire
An empty New Bond Street, in London on Tuesday, as England continued a four week national lockdown. Lockdown patently works if you are prepared to be brutal about it but the question is whether the cure is worth it. And if it is, then the impact on people needs to be shared more widely. Photo: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire

This is not because I think a lockdown cannot stop the virus — it patently will do if you are a society like China, where no-one would dare breach a rule and everyone was confined entirely to home for months on end (far more severe than our March restrictions).

But sceptics (of which I am only a partial one) fear that lockdown is worse than cure by impacting on other untreated diseases, by damaging people’s mental health and by causing financial ruin.

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It is true that the so-called Zero Covid approach is looking good now in places such as Australia and New Zealand, and that ‘live with it’ approach of Sweden is not looking so good.

But if we go down a road of brutal suppression there must be shared sacrifice, starting with pay cuts for politicians and scientific advisors, then wider measures to fund furlough such as public sector pay freezes (exempting frontling heroes).

• Ben Lowry (@benlowry2) is News Letter deputy editor

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Related topics:Ben LowryNorthern IrelandChinaProtestantNew Zealand