There’s a really good post over at the Comment Central site from Tory MP David Yorath. In his piece he writes about the increasingly authoritarian nature of the Covid rules, the worrying willingness of people to follow them and the failure of Parliamentarians to do what they should have done which is ask awkward questions about The Coronavirus Act and insist on sunset clauses.
Here’s very short excerpt from Mr Yorath’s article.
The contradiction in government strategy, and messaging, has gone undetected for the most part. Only the Liberal Democrats, and their miniscule representation in the Commons, have challenged the Government. Labour, as commonplace in recent years, has been silent and ineffective. It could be that they support such moves. After all, “big state” interventionism is a pillar of Labour-thinking in 2020. Yet, in the face of campaigns to get Britons back into the office, schools, and restaurants and pubs, it would not be difficult for them to at least flag the holes in government logic.
It’s a simple enough task. For instance, how can it be rational, or fair, that dozens of people can meet in an indoor environment, such as an office, where transmission rates are higher, but a family, or group of six or more, must forgo societal interaction? Put more plainly: how can it be that, from today, a family of five will not be able to visit two grandparents at the same time, while workplace and school numbers swell.
It is not a credible, or even simple, strategy. It is multi-faceted.
For instance, if you performed a street poll, today, few would know the previous legal limits on social gatherings, or the appropriate distancing that should be employed in different environments. The changes are not “simple”, as Matt Hancock claimed in a media round earlier this week. Nor are they respectful of our country’s proud defence of liberty.
They are, increasingly, akin to those of a surveillance state – and cannot even be trusted to be employed with consistency, if the pandemic activity of regional constabularies is of any indication.
So, it’s time for lawmakers to find their voices, and, at the very least, insist that time-limited clauses are applied to the cession of our freedoms. They can do this by stripping away the more draconian portions of the Coronavirus Act, when it comes forward for debate and review, in a couple of weeks’ time.
Please read the rest of this piece via the link below. In these times of almost Stasi like authoritarianism from Her Majesty’s Government, it is heartening to see that there are at least some on the Government side of the House of Commons who are standing up for liberty and against our oppression.
