Coronavirus is a chance to catalyse real change

The unhappy coincidence of the UK’s 75th anniversary of VE Day with the award of Europe’s wooden spoon for the management of the coronavirus pandemic (FT.com, May 7) suggests a connection between the two.

 As one of the few European nations not to have suffered the traumas of occupation, destruction or defeat, the UK had no need to renew its society, institutions or industries. At least one result of this has been the perpetuation, and indeed recent rejuvenation, of the infamous English class system currently personified by a government dominated by cookie-cutter individuals from the public schools and Oxbridge. Another result has been the careless disdain for business, management and scientific skills leading to the extinction of vast swaths of industries and what was most recently exhibited in the UK’s response to the pandemic.

 Consequences of this current crisis may hopefully catalyse changes in attitudes and rethinking of policies now due more than ever. Examples of the latter — Brexit and its timetable, and HS2, to name but two.