Introduction

A crisis like Covid-19 shines a light on our attitudes to authority. At the start of a big crisis people tend to welcome in, writes David Goodhart. But he noticed that some parts of the media seemed to be relishing the government's discomfort as various things started to go wrong. Was this the authoritarian instinct of an aging boomer? Or just an acknowledgement that there are times when we want authorities to perform well for all our sakes?