The lessons of the Elizabethan Poor Laws for Britain’s post-pandemic recovery

Why was Britain so hard hit by COVID? In their book, After the Virus, Simon Szreter (University of Cambridge) and Hilary Cooper look at how the neoliberalism and austerity of the last 40 years left the country peculiarly vulnerable to a shock such as the pandemic. They go back much further, to the Elizabethan era, to see how our earlier history might help us to chart a way out of malaise. Ros Taylor (LSE) reports on After the Virus, an event hosted by the LSE’s School of Public Policy to mark the launch of the book.