The coronavirus crisis has sounded the death knell for liberal globalisation

By accelerating the rebirth of the nation state and the working class, the pandemic will shape a new era.

LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 09: Emergency services boats are seen spraying water to applause NHS staff by the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Bridge on April 09, 2020 in London, England. Following the success of the "Clap for Our Carers" campaign, members of the public are being encouraged to applaud NHS staff and other key workers from their homes at 8pm every Thursday. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has infected over 1.5 million people across the world, claiming over 7,978 lives in the U.K. (Photo by Peter Summers/Getty Images)

The left is prone to misunderstanding “crisis” and “revolution”. The financial crash of 2008 led not to a left revival in the UK but to a long period of Conservative rule and ten years of austerity. This period could have offered a reckoning with the failures of globalisation and of democratic politics, an opportunity to resist the relentless pressure capitalism exerts in trying to transform human beings and our natural environment into commodities. Instead, much of the left reheated globalisation in the name of internationalism and, in the UK, the Labour Party could not assert its leadership of the country. This was intensified in the Brexit interregnum, which was resolved decisively by the Conservatives in the December 2019 general election.

The virus will shape a new era, not by transforming things utterly, as some commentators have said, but by accelerating and consolidating trends that have played out over the last 12 years.