Throughout the Coronavirus pandemic we have witnessed the rise of ‘Gotcha!’ moments synonymous with the politics of ‘The Blame Game’.
In the UK, over 100,000 people have died as a result of the Coronavirus. With the highest death toll in Europe, the effects on society, politics, and the economy have been cosmic. At the time of writing, we are in our third national lockdown: unemployment has reached an all-time high, the economy has suffered its biggest decline in 300 years, and our politics has disintegrated into finger pointing and blame passing.
“One of the government’s main achievements has been convincing the general public that they, or the immoral ‘other’, are responsible for the acceleration of the current public health crisis.”
Key figures in Parliament such as Justice Secretary Robert Buckland, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock, and even the Prime Minister himself have all laid blame with the general public for the spread of the virus. Mr. Buckland held the public responsible for the second lockdown due to failure to comply, Mr. Hancock for the shortage in COVID tests, and Mr. Johnson for “too many breaches”. The clear message from Downing Street and their strategy in ‘The Blame Game’ consists of unloading responsibility onto the public despite blunders such as the failed test and trace system, shortage of PPE, and the reluctance to lock down the country followed by a failed tier system.
However, there is evidence to suggest that this tactic just might work. According to a recent YouGov survey, when asked ‘Who do you hold the most responsible for the rise in Coronavirus cases over the last month?’, 58% of participants said the public, whilst only 28% said the government. It’s safe to say that one of the government’s main achievements has been convincing the general public that they, or the immoral ‘other’, are responsible for the acceleration of the current public health crisis.
So what is ‘The Blame Game?’
The ‘Blame Game’ is a ‘Gotcha!’ type of politics which works well in a low trust, high blame country like the UK. As the government gears up for an external inquiry into the handling of the pandemic, the search for blame is on. As lockdown fatigue sets in so does the demand for answers. The government will scramble to debunk claims that there was a lack of action on their behalf and that they underestimated the threat.
“Whilst many articles have critiqued the government’s tactic in ‘The Blame Game’, we shouldn’t be surprised as this is common during the political game of crisis management.”
From the beginning, the Conservatives have tried to peddle a narrative about ‘the rule breakers’ as supported by the media. This has been a scapegoat in response to questions like ‘why have we had so many failed lockdowns?’ and ‘why have we failed to curb the virus?’. Because the government cannot control the nature of the virus, it is important for them to control the narrative instead. This may counter negative perceptions of their governing capabilities. By pinpointing ‘the rule breakers’ this shows one way in which the Conservatives are trying to manipulate the discourse from ‘what went wrong’ to ‘we did all we could’.
Why do politicians take part?
It is important to acknowledge the attempt to try and distance the Prime Minister from the distribution of blame despite faults in decision making and leadership. For example, when it was revealed that Johnson failed to attend five Cobra meetings (pertaining to the argument that the government did not take the threat seriously from the beginning), Michael Gove jumped to his defence and pointed to the workings of inner government instead. This shows blame management and avoidance strategies coming into play, perhaps in an attempt to uphold two important pillars for a new functioning government – competence and credibility.
Whilst many articles have critiqued the government’s tactic in ‘The Blame Game’, we shouldn’t be surprised as this is common during the political game of crisis management.
Research by Matthew Flinders highlights that the main priority for the government is to avoid the blame of poor management rather than receiving credit for what went well. Politicians know that crisis management is a risky business, actively seeking blame-avoidance measures and self-preservation strategies. In the UK, this has not only been done by using the general public as a scapegoat but also by blame-sharing techniques. Specifically with the Chief Scientific Advisor and the Chief Medical Officer who have become the public face of the crisis. The government has made sure that every decision has been ‘informed by the experts’, employing a science-led approach which means that these ‘experts’ will be held equally responsible.
“Advisors advise but ministers decide.”
Although the act of ‘blame sharing’ seems like a clever strategy on the face of it, the famous quote comes to mind that “Advisors advise, but ministers decide”, eliciting questions as to whether the distribution of blame will or can be equal to what will be experienced by the Conservatives as leaders of this country.
People are looking for answers and whoever takes the flack at the end of ‘The Blame Game’, we can guarantee a contentious political mess and a divided society. People are pointing fingers at one another, the government are using scientific experts as human shields – racking up ammunition to blame Public Health England whilst also chiming into the narrative of the ‘rulebreakers’ – and there is a general lack of solidarity which has progressed with the mismanagement of the public health crisis. It is too late now to stop ‘The Blame Game’ but unlike Monopoly, nobody wins.
Atalya Alexis
Featured Image courtesy of Jamie Street via Unsplash. Image license can be found here. No changes were made to this image.
