The awful consequences which flowed from lockdowns are so deep and broad it is hard to know where to begin. I think they are the major cause of so many of our current problems.

At heart governments did the unthinkable. They deliberately broke the social contract on which society is founded. They imprisoned us for months on end – and all for nothing. Their draconian actions were unscientific, ineffective, irrational and wholly destructive. They completely undermined any belief that the powers that be act in a proportionate and considered manner: instead they panicked, and we lost our basic freedoms.

The rank stupidity of the authorities, gave permission for ordinary citizens to do foolish and damaging things: to riot, to lose the work ethic, to drop out of school, to embrace hypochondria, to despair and even commit suicide.

All accepted norms were thrown out of the window. Instead of reassuring the public, the Government spent millions of pounds of our own money frightening us. Why bother with anything if the vast apparatus of the state behaves in such a demented way?

Lockdowns meant the economy was put into a sudden induced coma because of an exaggerated fear of disease. Unsurprisingly there were severe harms from such a drastic step. Terrible habits became ingrained. What could be more idiotic than paying people to sit at home and do nothing?

Civilisation is a more fragile construct than we like to believe. It depends on mutual trust and an expectation that the large majority of people are law abiding and have confidence in public bodies like Parliament, the civil service, the police, the education system, the national media, unions and public health experts. Institutions which have taken decades or even centuries to construct were exposed as hollow and led by cowards and sheep.

Most of the important things in life take time, balance and willpower. But lockdowns and public health monomania threw self-discipline and proportion on the bonfire.

Why care about any other disease except Covid? Why not just lock everyone up – even though it was crystal clear from February 2020 that Covid was largely only a serious risk to the elderly and frail? Who cares about education for millions of children? Why worry about squandering £400 billion of taxpayers’ money in Britain alone in less than two years, taking our national debt up to its highest level since World War Two?

Governments like those in Britain and America prostituted their nation’s creditworthiness to temporarily insulate the electorate from the sheer folly of lockdowns. But the bills are coming due – the absolute amount of Government debt keeps rising, and given much higher interest rates, the cost is becoming enormous.

I read an essay recently which described decivilisation – the decay of order, the advance of chaos, transience visible everywhere, and the absence of anything durable. This feels like the process we underwent during lockdowns. We are still picking up the pieces and attempting to deal with the aftermath.

The ruin imposed by lockdowns stretched from psychological abuse to educational impairments to economic devastation. It was social, cultural, career and institutional vandalism on an unprecedented scale.

The evil of inflation started in 2020 and accelerated in 2021 because of restrictions in production and supply bottlenecks – thanks to lockdowns. Millions of businesses were partly or wholly shut down, but demand for items did not necessarily diminish.

Indeed, in many cases demand rose – central banks inflamed conditions by lowering interest rates and printing money. People sat bored at home and bought goods online. After a brief hiatus, the value of assets like shares and property rose, with all the increased liquidity fueling prices. The rich got richer; the less well-off did not.

So of course the elite mostly thought lockdowns weren’t too bad after all. They sat snug, smug and safe in their nice homes, getting wealthier, while the ‘little people’ brought them things. Society became more divided – resentments grew.

By the time Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, inflation was firmly entrenched. The rise in the price of energy simply turbo-charged this trend. Inflation exploded and the cost of living crisis took hold. Falling living standards have swept through communities like a third Horseman of the Apocalypse – the first being Covid, and the second (and most awful) being lockdowns.

Lockdowns bolstered the pathetic concept that safety is all that matters and boosted a growing tendency towards risk aversion. But that way lies a life of fear and stagnation, and a world without innovation, ambition or progress. Once a culture loses its collective confidence and belief in a better future, then decline becomes inevitable.

If society feels like it is spinning out of control, then you would be right to blame lockdowns. They were unquestionably the stupidest Government intervention of our lifetimes. Anyone who still claims they were ‘worth it’ is in denial.