It’s time to televise corona cabinet discussions

Microphones were installed in the House of Commons chamber in 1950. A mere 38 years passed before a parliamentary debate was broadcast on the radio. We would probably blush now to hear the arguments against our being allowed to follow in real time the intricacies of parliamentary debate. But the institutional habit of treating voters like children dies hard. It spooked most of us to hear that the Prime Minister was suddenly in hospital, then in ICU with a serious condition, so No. 10 disclosed, of being ‘cheerful’. We knew very well that these days cheerfulness can be effectively cured at home.

Dread of spreading ‘alarm and despondency’ is one of the more tiresome elements of our second world war inheritance. Now is the time for us all, including communications staff at No. 10, to be grown-ups.

The next full cabinet discussion of how to proceed with, or exit from, the stay-at-home policy, or whether schools could open in September, should be televised. We don’t ask for a say — we want to be involved. We are involved — heavily and particularly. If there are differences along the lines of economy vs health, let’s hear them.

It’s an important argument. If there are variants in the expert advice, we can take it. If Boris Johnson, happily back at the table, overrides some or all of his colleagues, so be it. He was granted that authority in December. We understand well enough disagreements among politicians, just as we understand collective cabinet responsibility. In this crisis there are risks, whatever direction the government takes. And this is the point — the risks are ours.

This article is an extract from Ian McEwan's Spectator Notebook, available in this week's magazine. Copyright of Ian McEwan