EXPERTS

In an earlier post concerning Brexit, entitled ‘Precedents’, I wrote:

‘The decision-making process is comprised of several parts, of which expert opinion is but one… It is the nature of experts that they are wrong, and the advice they give should be restricted to technical issues. Different experts will arrive at different opinions. There are often different areas of technical expertise – such as economic, legal and constitutional.

Then there is the track record of the experts. How often are they right? Then there is the risk factor. What are the potential adverse consequences of things going wrong? Then there is common sense. Then there is what do people actually want?

Importantly, there is the judgement of those making the decision. Are they wise and objective, or are they stupid and bigoted?

Of great help, is: are there any lessons to be learned from precedents? Have we been in similar situations before?’

We are presently being guided in our reaction to the Covid-19 (coronavirus) outbreak by experts. Their view seems to be that the importation of the infection into the UK is unavoidable and so border checks are of little use, and we need to learn to manage the spread of the infection across the population. They have computer models to assist them in their opinion making.

A week ago, the situation in Italy was shown on the news. Several Italian cities and regions even were put into quarantine. It was subsequently reported that a group of English children on a skiing trip had to be turned back at the airport by the Italian authorities as they arrived in Italy. They children were advised to self isolate when they landed back.

On Question Time yesterday, one panelist pointed out that football supporters from a badly infected part of Spain had attended a match in England. The danger posed by this should not require too much imagination.

One can only wonder if there has been an exclusion of common sense in the formulation of government policy.