The New Normal Is Upon Us

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The new normal is upon us. As Milton Friedman used to say, “there is nothing so permanent as a temporary government programme.” And that applies to governments’ response to the pandemic perfectly. The ‘temporary’ ‘public health’ measures that have been rolled out and those that are being introduced even now, a year-and-a-half into the pandemic, will very likely become permanent. As is always the case, there will be exceptions. Not all part of the lockdowns and the pandemic-related bureaucratic machine will stay with us. Most of them will, though - in one way or another - and those will become permanent burdens on people’s lives and permanent restrictions of their freedoms.