Numbers vs. Emotions

I find it interesting how some mornings, news that might normally pass you by, sticks.

On Radio 4 (UK) this morning, a Government Minister was being interviewed about the uncertain status and progress of local restrictions, and the possibility of a "circuit breaker" lockdown.

It wouldn't be my favourite subject to be interviewed on, particularly by the quality and relentlessness of radio 4 interviewers, but he got the short straw.

The context. We are into the second phase of a pandemic with no known end, as we go into winter, facing restrictions that many people feel unfair and the looming spectre of high unemployment in a rapidly changing market.

Here's why the interview stuck. For five minutes, the interviewer probed around people's feelings of unfairness, reports of potential destitution from another government department, and a whole range of issues that had little to do with logic and everything to do with fear. In response, the Minister spouted numbers. The amount that had been spen…