Enough's enough?
The above question was posed on a discussion group that I am a member of.
My response to this question would vary depending upon when it was asked. When cases were increasing across the country, and hospital ICUs were filling up with COVID patients, I would be more inclined to disagree. However now (beginning of July) the situation is different. The SAGE advisers have been proven wrong yet again in their dire predictions based on models fed with inaccurate data. The reality is that COVID is accounting for something like 10 deaths per week, and some of those may well be from other causes but with COVID mentioned somewhere on the death certificate. Cases are going up, but with the level of testing the country is doing, this is hardly surprising. The tests were never designed to be used on symptom-less people so the accuracy of some of the results is questionable. On top of this, we have the Government minister, Matt Hancock, who, as secretary of state for health, has been very influential in imposing gruelling lockdowns on the masses whilst ignoring social distancing rules in order to have an affair with his aide. We have Michael Gove, another proponent of lockdowns in the inner government circle, returning from a trip and getting pinged by track and trace. Normal people have to isolate for 10 days, but if you are a member of Government, you can take part in a hastily devised 'pilot scheme' where you simply need to test yourself daily for a few days but provided you test negative, you can continue with your normal life. We have the leaders at the G7 summit posing for socially distanced official photos then ignoring the rules at the beach barbecue, and the thousands of UEFA VIPs and fans allowed to bypass quarantine rules so that the big matches could be run at Wembley.
Whilst the ruling elites are happily disregarding the rules they have put in place for the rest of us, they have extended the so-called 'freedom day' by 4 weeks. Four more weeks of young couples being obliged to limit their wedding guest list to 30 with no dancing allowed. Funerals suffer in the same way. Our children are being sent home from school en masse if one child in their 'bubble' tests positive, and that bubble in some schools is an entire year group. The latest figure I read was 375,000 children, mostly healthy and mostly at minimal risk from Covid, isolating at home with disruption not only to their schooling but also their mental health.
The contrast between the freedoms that the governing elites and their associates are allowed, and the restrictions on liberty that they continue to impose on the compliant population is increasing. The latest date for our 'release' is 19th July, but I struggle to believe that this too won't slip. Maybe we will be allowed some freedoms, but some constraints will stay in place.
That is not good enough. The vaccination program has proven its worth. The people need their civil liberties returned to them. We need to stop this two tier approach where the government impose restrictions that they clearly do not believe in and are happy to flout. If the only way is mass disobedience, then that is what we need to do.
