Communicating COVID-19: Accountability and ‘British Common Sense’

In this paper, we conduct a discursive psychological analysis of coronavirus briefings where the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, mentions ‘common sense’ as means to instruct British people how to behave during the pandemic. We look at five instances where the Prime Minister constructs the idea of using ‘common sense’ as guidance for fighting COVID-19 and examine how the function and use of ‘common sense’ varied at different stages of the pandemic. The findings show that ‘common sense’ began as something that was ‘normal’ to utilise, and eventually was constructed as a weapon, alongside emphasising the ‘common sense’ of British people and drawing upon nationalist tropes which excludes non-British residents of the UK. The findings are discussed in light of how ‘common sense’ is used to hold British people accountable for lowering infection rates whilst at the same time, presenting politicians as acting in solidarity with the public.