16 April

My biggest frustration with conservative governments in this crisis has been the continuing insistence on 'balancing' the 'economy' and peoples' health. As if those were two separate things. Like this obsession worldwide to 'get kids back to school', all the conservatives are rallying behind it. We've been here before, with water, where the 'economic' needs of farmers had to be 'balanced' against environmental flows. It's bullshit, they're THE SAME NEEDS. An economy is healthy people. A healthy river is the only river useful for farmers. Schools are gatherings of hundreds of people that violate social distancing requirements. There's nothing to balance here, a conservative talking about balance is a lobbyist spruiking for some existing vested interest. (In political strategy terms, they're partly using a technique called 'false balance'), Remember that the people who want to cripple action on climate change use the same 'balance' metaphor. That's not accidental, it's strategy. If I spent 80% of my family's weekly income on a personal hobby, like fishing, and my wife objected, she wouldn't be happier if I said "ok, we need to balance the family's needs against my fishing needs". She'd tell me to stop being such a selfish arsehole.