23rd March 2020-23rd March 2021. Some untold histories of the present
It is far too soon to write the history of the last year of lockdowns, illness and death, and job losses.
That doesn’t mean however that some of the constituent parts of that history should not be gathered.
There are a lot and some have been covered by the media, but not all.
The point most often made was that Johnson locked down too late a year ago and contributed to the UK having amongst the highest COVID death rates in the world.
A people’s inquiry on this and other matters is already underway and an official one might follow. It will probably be ponderous, go on a long time and lead to not much (think Iraq War).
There are lots of other matters that should go to making the pre-history of the last 12 months.
One key area because it will be one of the hardest to record is the world and the people that Boris Johnson doesn’t know exist. These are often ethnic minorities, but not always. They are always from the poorest less well-off parts of society.
There are the issues of poor housing conditions that have led to increased COVID infections and deaths in some areas. In the first lockdown it was London Boroughs, subsequently it has moved elsewhere, as it were.
Numbers have been left to work in unsafe conditions. Over 50 London bus drivers have died of COVID. Meanwhile teachers and the NEU in particular have had to fight, and been vilified for doing so, for safety at work.
We can’t and never will forget the NHS and the range of those who work so hard to keep it going. Their reward? A 1% pay rise (in practice a cut)
It goes much wider than this. While there have been large numbers thrown out of work-think pubs, theatre, music etc who have not been picked up in the furlough schemes, there are also many who have continued to work throughout, keeping things going. That includes the telecoms managers and professionals who I represent as a trade union officer.
Finally we must not forget those who have done very well out of the last year. The very highly paid consultants who haven’t delivered track and trace. The friends of Tory Ministers who have got large contracts to do things only for it to be eventually discovered that the NHS and local authorities do it better and much more cheaply.
There is a lot of history to be discovered and recorded here. It is our present but it will be future generations past and it needs to be documented and told.
Dr Keith Flett convenes the socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London.
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