this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2023
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Covid lockdowns had ‘catastrophic effect’ on UK’s social fabric, report claims (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 11 months ago by GreyShuck@feddit.uk to c/unitedkingdom@feddit.uk
13 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Covid lockdowns had a “catastrophic effect” on the UK’s social fabric and the most disadvantaged are no better off now than at the time of the financial crash, a new report claims.

The country is in danger of sliding back into the divisions of the Victorian era, marked by a widening gap between the mainstream and the poorest in society, according to an inquiry by the centre-right thinktank the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ).

About 13.4 million people lead lives affected by family fragility, stagnant wages, poor housing, chronic ill health and crime, the centre says.

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[–] ristoril_zip@lemmy.zip 38 points 11 months ago

It's quite cunning of the capitalists to blame COVID lockdowns for their acceleration of the wealth gap that was clearly growing faster and faster before COVID.

Never mind that the lockdowns kept people from dying, right? Kept the hospitals from being even more overwhelmed. The capitalists would rather have a bunch of dead workers than lose productivity.

Let's see if we keep falling for it. I know all the MAGA people in America and their ilk internationally have already. Next will be the people who don't really pay attention to world events.

[–] Emperor@feddit.uk 13 points 11 months ago

I suppose it's unsurprising that a centre right think tank would pin the blame on lockdown not the decade+ of Tory misrule.

The social fabric was strained and people took a financial hit but the cause of the widening gap between rich and poor are the preceding years of austerity.

[–] IbnLemmy@feddit.uk 12 points 11 months ago

Not going to read some Centre right bullshit, but wouldn't be surprised if there was no mention of Austerity or Brexit in all of this.

How David Cameron is back in politics is beyond me.

[–] DeathWearsANecktie@lemm.ee 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Shit was fucked before 2020. The rot has been growing since 2010.

[–] abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 11 months ago

I wonder what changed in 2010 I wonder. 🤔

[–] Lmaydev@programming.dev 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The lockdowns were awful, but necessary.

Many pillars of the community got fucked.

My local pub owners can't get a loan to buy the place as banks are rejecting loans because of bad numbers during COVID.

Seems ridiculous as it doesn't reflect their usual earnings as people literally weren't allowed to go.

Lots of social and hospitality places will never recover.

And the rich got a lot richer. There was a lot of money to be made by fucking normal people over.

[–] wewbull@feddit.uk 2 points 11 months ago

It goes a lot deeper than the local pub.

We've got a bunch of children that will be known of the COVID generation. They will have educational issues, relationship issues, mental health issues and more I'm sure, all at higher rates than those either side of them.

And we'll put them into a job market where the rich are more powerful than before.

[–] lemonflavoured@kbin.social 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, and having no lockdowns would have had an even more catastrophic effect.

[–] wewbull@feddit.uk 2 points 11 months ago

[citation needed] as they used to say.

The modelling data we used to justify lockdowns also gave expected outcomes if we did lockdown. It was wrong. So wrong that there's no reason to think it would have held true for the paths we didn't follow. If somebody has gone back and modelled what no lockdown would have meant based on the data we have today, then I'm all ears. You can't point to March 2020 modelling today though. It's been shown to be wrong.

The truth of it is that we were scared and we panicked. What's worse, is that we never adjusted our strategy based on what we learned. We never thought about the future cost of our actions and now when those effects are starting to be realised, we're too embarrassed to admit it.

[–] abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'm genuinely curious what the alternatives were to a lockdown.

[–] nous@programming.dev 5 points 11 months ago

I believe the politicians were talking about natural herd immunity at one point - aka, do nothing let people get sick and possible die and hope it all blows over. And as a bonus stress the NHS to the point of collapse so they can finally call it a failure and sell if off to the highest bidder. Not saying it was a good alternative - just one they did talk about doing.

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 4 points 11 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Covid lockdowns had a “catastrophic effect” on the UK’s social fabric and the most disadvantaged are no better off now than at the time of the financial crash, a new report claims.

The country is in danger of sliding back into the divisions of the Victorian era, marked by a widening gap between the mainstream and the poorest in society, according to an inquiry by the centre-right thinktank the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ).

About 13.4 million people lead lives affected by family fragility, stagnant wages, poor housing, chronic ill health and crime, the centre says.

The CSJ’s Social Justice Commission’s report, Two Nations: the State of Poverty in the UK, argues that the most disadvantaged in Britain are no better off than 15 years ago.

“Lockdown policy poured petrol on the fire that had already been there in the most disadvantaged people’s lives, and so far no one has offered a plan to match the scale of the issues.

It also heard from more than 350 small charities, social enterprises and policy experts, and the commission travelled to three nations of the UK and to more than 20 towns and cities.

The original article contains 597 words, the summary contains 192 words. Saved 68%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 1 points 11 months ago

Doesn't surprise me at all