Crises such as public health must be met by the state and there’s the Conservatives’ rub
Conservatives look like cranks today, not because of personal failings of this or that politician, but because they cannot deal with the crises of the modern world. It’s not that they don’t have answers – rightwing thinkers spit them out faster than a machine gun fires bullets. It’s just that their answers are irrelevant and, even in Tory terms, self-defeating.
All viable responses to global warming, vaccination, the job losses artificial intelligence will bring and failing public health enhance the role of the state. It must provide jobs and benefits to society’s losers, protect their health and drastically reconfigure markets to sustain the planet. Small states that allow sovereign individuals and companies to decide for themselves now feel as antiquated as Margaret Thatcher’s handbag and pearls.
