Jonathan Franks from Hillier Hopkins along with colleagues at TGS Global has written a very interesting article on the UK response to Coronavirus which we encourage you to read. The first two paragraphs are included here, if you wish to read more of the article then please click on the link below which will take you to the Hillier Hopkins website and the remainder of the piece.
The enormity of COVID-19’s human tragedy is unquestionable. As we pass 15,000 deaths in the UK, we pass 15,000 bereaved families. This horror has been replicated across the globe with a quarter of a million unique tragedies. In that context it may feel churlish to consider the economics of the crisis and its financial cost, but in failing to do so we would ignore the impact on all of our lives made by this virus’s mutilation of the world’s economy.
Naturally a crisis of such gravity also has political consequences. In each country, governments face choices, quite literally, between lives and deaths. Lockdowns and social distancing will doubtless save lives but come with increasing financial and economic cost. Economic activity requires social activity and is therefore tethered, to some extent, to rates of mortality. These stark conflicts of interest may evoke the biblical story of the Tower of Babel. As with the nations dispersed from Babel, our complex network of social and economic connections has inadvertently contributed to a crisis that threatens to undermine that very network, and to impoverish our lives as a consequence. To what extent politicians decide, like the scattered people in the story, to abandon or rethink this vast construction as we recover from this crisis will be a matter of great interest and importance.
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Hillier Hopkins are members of The Institute of Chartered Accountants England & Wales and The Chartered Institute of Taxation. Please note that Hillier Hopkins are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the FCA do not regulate tax advice.