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The left will only meet the challenge of Covid-19 if it learns the right lessons from recent defeats

THE devastating reality of the coronavirus pandemic has inspired demands that we don’t settle for a return to “normal” afterwards but build a better future.

The British state has been particularly ineffective in containing infections and deaths, both because of political blunders but also down to years of cuts, a marketised public service model which is inept at responding to emergencies and wilful irresponsibility by Conservative governments — infamously ignoring the findings of 2016’s pandemic drill Exercise Cygnus, for example.

Socialists have long-standing criticisms of these policies and calls for big increases in public spending and a return to straightforward public ownership and control of services including the NHS but also transport, communications and supply, utilities and so on were popular before this crisis and will be amplified by it.

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