Further reflections on the Hallett Inquiry

We need to take the opportunity of shedding light on events for all our and our descendants' sake.

By now, half of Britons and a good number of others know what happened when Carl was questioned on the 19th of October by Andrew O’Connor KC. By Monday night, the other half will also know.

The questioning was undoubtedly an outlier compared to previous sessions, previous witnesses, the tone, language, time allotted and selection of topics. I have written about these and will do so again.

Here, I want to focus on a wider question.

The events of 2020-2022 were clearly exceptional. Previous pandemics had not resulted in rich nations coming to a standstill. The feared 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic did not halt World War One. From 2020, we had suspensions of all non-essential services and some essential ones, segregation of large chunks of the population and near disintegration of the moral fabric of society, not to mention widespread looting of public money by organised gangs of criminals. Unlike the rest of us, the crooks seem to have got away with it.

Whether you think that the exception…