The government put proposals to Parliament yesterday, which bring Britain closer to being a Police State; this is unprecedented in the peacetime history of the nation. These proposals were ostensibly to help in the fight against the coronavirus, but in reality, they are powers they do not need in that fight.
There has never been a proper debate about the powers the government needs to fight a virus like this one, and that is because if there was one, there would be found to be no case to need such powers. Britain has always been a country prepared to fight to defend its liberties and freedoms, and did so as recently as the Second World War.
Today the government and the opposition parties are as one in not upholding the value of the liberties the country holds dear. The government has passed draconian legislation which will give them dramatic powers to curb individual liberties. They originally wanted them to last for two years and this very fact creates suspicions as to why they really want the powers. The opposition can at least be thanked for pressing the government to reduce the period to six months, but they will simply be due for review, not necessarily coming to an end.
Do countries need dictatorial powers to fight a disease?
However, if we look at Australia, who are introducing similar powers, theirs are for a fixed period of two months. If, as the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, recently said that he hoped the crisis would be over in twelve weeks, why did his government want these extensive powers for two years?
In fact, why have them at all, because many countries are dealing with this coronavirus without any changes in their laws at all? The problem with governments obtaining more powers, is that often the powers are even more extensive once the small print is revealed. There is even more concerning when the legislation is rushed through and there is little chance of scrutiny.
What do the proposals mean?
What we do know about the proposals is that amongst other things, they will give the government and its agencies the power to do the following:
- To shut down premises, and those used for gatherings
- To ban meetings
- To postpone elections
- To lock people up without trial and to fine people without trial.
- To force quarantine and treatment
- To section people with only one doctor’s signature
- To restrict peoples’ individual liberties in a broad range of areas
- To give the government a whole range of sweeping new powers
With a lot of these powers, the scope to use them in an indiscriminate and unjust way is extensive. If these powers were being proposed without there being an excuse such as the coronavirus, they would get nowhere. However, Parliament and the public have been hoodwinked into thinking such powers are necessary to defeat the coronavirus, and their guard has foolishly gone down.
As Thomas Jefferson is reputed to have said .. “the price of freedom is eternal vigilance,” and Desmond Tutu also gave a speech on the subject.
We have not had vigilance by our politicians and in this regard, they have let us down immensely.
What did the Prime Minister say?
The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson’s statement on the evening of Monday 23rd March, was a huge curb on our liberties. There can be no questioning it, the government has given itself dictatorial powers. The reasons he gave were to defeat the coronavirus because the NHS cannot cope with increased demand. With no other disease in history has the government given itself such powers.
Having yesterday decided on what appeared to be a sensible “Shield “ policy of targeting the vulnerable, he has now decided to target everyone. He has decided to copy the countries which have gone for extensive restrictions rather than those who have been successful with having no restrictions on individual liberties.
It begs the question, would we defeat this virus anyway, without such restrictions?
This policy appears to have been made on speculation, rather than proven facts, and especially due to irresponsible media pressure, who have hyped up and distorted the true facts.
The government is now telling people how to live their daily lives
This government is now instructing the people how they should live their daily lives.
- The Prime Minister is ordering people to stay at home, that they are only allowed out for shopping, medical reasons and essential care of others.
- All non-essential shops will be closed.
- Only travel to and from work will be allowed.
- We are instructed not to meet our friends.
- We are permitted one form of exercise a day so parks remain open
- All social events will be banned
- No gatherings permitted.
- No weddings allowed, only funerals.
- No meeting with more than one person
- Police have draconian enforcement powers
The Prime Minister made it clear the government has given the police the powers to enforce the instructions by the use of fines and imprisonment. What is also concerning is that these regulations will not be reviewed for three weeks.
If the government has a health system which apparently cannot cope with having 6000 to 20,000 deaths caused by one virus ( and also has to cancel the majority of other operations), it clearly is the poor provision of NHS resources by the government rather than the virus itself which is the problem. We already know the deaths from this virus are still way below those for other diseases, so why cannot the 1300 hospitals in the country cope with this?
The government has a lot of questions to answer for making us lose our cherished freedoms because they failed to provide for the health protection of its own citizens.
“Britain has always been a country prepared to fight to defend its liberties and freedoms, and did so as recently as the Second World War”
Putting to one side the essential truths contained in this article, I would just like to correct this sentence above. Britain did NOT go to war in 1939 over ‘freedom’. The causes of WW2 were the same as WW1 – economic and geopolitical. Hitler upset the money power (international finance) and he threatened to upset the strategic balance on the continent by building Germany up in order to crush the Soviet Union. It is a tragedy that Churchill started a war with Germany because of his visceral hatred of Germans NOT Nazis. He not only succeeded in bankrupting the country but he lost the empire. Germany did not want a war with this country and it is to our shame that our bombers helped murder 13 million Germans. The idea that Britain fought the war because it was ‘confronting evil’ is a grotesque lie since our main allies were the Soviets who had mass murdered or imprisoned tens of millions of their own people.
The reasons he gave were to defeat the corona virus `because the NHS cannot cope` with increased demand.
So instead of PUTTING A FEW BILLION TO FIX IT Boris Johnson’s conservative government declares a state of emergency and shuts down Brexit Britain Economy instead. Then imposes a State Curfew without Police and no Public reading of the The Riot Act first thus declaring martial law without calling out the Army while the Government quickly suspend civil liberty and common law abrogating all state power to themselves by Emergency Decree For two years?…What is this? The EU ? Something is getting done BUT it is not brexit old boy,,,,,,its a TRANS-military economic ^& political SOFT COUP….. they intend to wage war but it is not the flu they intend to eradicate. It is our our country, liberty, livelihoods and finally our democratic mandate. Welcome to the carbon neutral future. Its called Zero Emissions.
Dear Americans
Lots of you have guns: why are you not rebelling agaist the state curfews?
Just to throw an incovenient spanner type thought.!
I understand this is a terrible thing to say. From Mad Ming the Merciless. But it has to be considered
Underlying conditions. And Poorer countries undeveloped health infrastructure with no cases, Hospitals . Something odd. Age is another serious factor. Do our politicians already know ?
Could it be overdeveloped treatments or something unexpected. The more you treat people the worse it gets. A single shipment tto Wuhan.? Just a wlid thought.All these wild thoughts must have been considered and either discounted or.
How do you tell a population that worships something, that your much loved NHS is killing them because it can’t afford to keep them alive.?
Answer they’ve been doing it since the dawn of time. Great God Baal. Simple. Add a threat..! Has nobody here run a big business ? ( Tactic No x :- your choice )
This is no joking matter Mr Spokes……..?
I was out for a walk today in a small Northern town. Usually it is bustling with activity, a very vibrant community.
Today the place was almost deserted. Like something from the Twilight Zone. But more police presence. I noticed four police cars and two police vans. And a police “mobile surveillance unit” van with a large camera mounted on its roof cruised slowly past me twice. Then my phone beeped – a text message from GOV.UK, “you must stay at home!”
Maybe you all need to listen to a microbiologist. Yes, I do agree, Anthony, that 2 years of ‘special measures’ is a travesty, although there is a very real risk that the potential need might cover that timespan. There was a second and third wave of the ‘Spanish flu’ a century ago.
When the measures succeed in starving the virus of new hosts we have to lift restrictions very carefully, be vigilant and be prepared to lock down nationally, or within a given area very quickly to contain a resurgance. Complacency caused the second, worse wave with Spanish flu. We need to watch those nations that are ahead of us very carefully and learn from them. One key will be keeping people from bringing it back from countries where it is still circulating (already happening in China and Hong Kong)
I lecture in quarantine and contamination control in my specialist field. My golden rule is ‘Any incoming cell line of unknown status must be quarantined and tested’.
Yes – for sure these measures, applied far too late in the curve, are a sign of failure. The government f***ed up big time. When the outbreak was confined to China and nearby places tracing and testing was good, although they did not put the necessary restrictions on people coming in from affected countries. Even as the cruise ship passengers (only allowed to fly back if they had no fever and tested negative) were completing their quarantine at Arrowe Park they were telling people coming back from Italy to carry on as normal if they had no symptoms. Unbelievably stupid – begs the question, stupid or intentional? We now know up to nearly 20% can be asymptomatic and possibly carriers.
I will grant you that by the time we became aware that there was a problem in Italy – when the half term exodus had been back a day or two, there would already have been people who came back earlier with it. FFS – not only should the brakes have been slammed on re Italy immediately but a call should have gone out to ealrier returners to get checked (still possible then) Those of us who understand infection and its spread have already worked out that there were multiple foci of infections in Italy and it was festering well before half term. (the clue as to why may lie in fashion industry sweatshops being brought from China to the heart of Italian ragtrade land)
This most emphatically is NOT flu, it is more infectious and MUCH more capricious. Generally pneumonia on the back of flu is a bacterial supra infection – bacterial means we have antibiotics! Mostly it is viral pneumonia with this one. There is warning after warning out there to young people not to be complacent because it is picking the old and weak – as most infections do – from younger, formerly healthy people, in hospital, on oxygen. Their lungs may be permanently damaged.
Please everyone, get real, get on with it. Starve the virus of hosts, the sooner the better
Helena I’ve been wondering. This virus seems to be much like the common cold, but on steroids. Does it spread predominately by contact, by airborne droplets when someone sneezes, or a mist of tiny droplets from exhaled breath. Can it be circulated in a building’s air conditioning system? To what extent is it heat sensitive. (I phoned my daughter in Durban where it is humid and hot now when the outbreak took hold. She confirmed lack of evidence of the virus spreading even though an infected person had returned from Italy. I immediately cranked up my heating, my house has been running at 20+ ever since. Sorry Gretta.)
If it is indeed seasonal then we need to ask why it is seasonal. It is perfectly possible to fry things using a heater or microwaves in an airduct or remove particulates using electrostatic precipitation.
My apologies for the questions but knowing the answers to some of these questions and perhaps other questions not asked that you might think of and have answers for might be helpful.
It annoys me that we are told do this, don’t do that etc. with no explanation. When that happens it is often not because they think we are fools but rather because they fear that we are not.
Helena Windsor…..where on earth have all of you knowledgeable folk been?
We have heard via BBC blonde toothy AI (very artificial!) clones (possibly made in China).
The man on the Clapham Omnibus,
Billy Bunter Boris and troupes of Cruise Liner bargain hunters………..Oh yes, we have heard from ALL of them……….but REAL experts?
Zilch!
Thousands of spaghetti/rice consuming brothel dwelling,sewing machinists and New Silk Road construction workers have been traipsing in and out of Virus infested and toxic swilling Chinese cities – when the ‘Authorities’ were fully aware of the tragshiti – about to ‘hit the fan’.
But when your population is 1.5 billion – then a few million are expendable – when it comes to a war of attrition it is only the numbers that matter.
I feel that we are a latter-day group of US Cavalry misfits – surrounded not by Big Chief Sitting Bull and his braves……but by the slaves to the Communist Chinese Party Politburo.
As for the New Silk Road Project? Beware Chinese bearing gifts.
The government failed to act when it was time to do so – before there were any cases in the UK, or possibly even as late as any time before the half term holidaymakers started returning from their ski trips to Italy. Had they introduced a 14 day quarantine for anyone arriving in the UK from abroad at that time and properly enforced it, the epidemic would have been kept out of the UK altogether, without any drastic measures, no internal police state, relatively minor economic damage, and with the quarantine having to last a relatively short period of time. Instead, the chose to follow the Sir Humphrey protocol https://twitter.com/MarianneSansum/status/1238595962353917957 .
An incompetent Government presiding over a failing NHS gives itself draconian powers to cover up its failures. Failure to close the borders, failure to track and contain the carriers, failure to properly protect the at risk groups.
Apart from that they were on the right path to herd immunity.
M ore than this Chinese virus we should fear, and reject an over mighty state. Read 1984.
Talking of police, when did you last see one except on television or posing in stiletto’s and nail polish. All of a sudden they will be everywhere. Strange that!
Of course we will guard our liberties, damn it, we are British ! ….. This Government has gone too far this time, and we won’t stand for it ! ….. ‘They’ are telling us how we may be allowed to live ! ….. etc., etc., and damned etc.
Forgive me for turning the light on here, but Government tried to ‘suggest’, and little notice was taken ! – The numbers are increasing for this virus, and many are blaming the Government for it ! ….. Should the numbers spike, and go beyond the possible manageable number for the NHS to cope with it, then the Nation is stuffed in its health, and its finances ! ….. Drastic action is not only necessary, it is obligatory, and it is required now !
Continuance of these measures beyond what is required would be politically dumb, as would be the hurried easement as the numbers start to fall. – Know what this enemy is capable of, and make adjustment ! – The virus is bad, but misplaced independence could be a bigger killer with the virus !
Yes damn it, we are British and we should have more intelligence than other folk !
Did anybody notice that we now must obey regulations rather than law? Isn’t that a military term?
Regulations are made under the authority of an Act of Parliament and are not exclusively for the military.
I am all in favour of the Government’s position. We have seen the stupidity of huge numbers of our citizens who will not listen and act on the advice and so put us all at huge increased risk. This virus is no respecter of people. It is unlike anything we have seen since smallpox or the black death and potentially worse. Why? Because it does not relate to the human genome and so our immune systems are incapable of acting on it. That means that if we do not lockdown with severity then millions will die. This is not scaremongering. It is fact, so instead of spreading these types of opinions, start getting real about the trouble the world and us now face and support what the government is doing for all our sakes.
Only 1% of Covid deaths have not involved underlying serious health issues. Any of the Black Death, Smallpox or Covid would finish off people with compromised health; only the Black Death and Smallpox did for people in otherwise perfect health. So yes you are scaremongering.
A vaccine will be found soon hopefully as it was for Plague and Smallpox. There is nothing to suggest the death rate is anything in excess of normal for this time of year just that more are due to pneumonia. The main issue is a lack of ICU beds which can be laid at the door of governments. There will be a lot of egg on a lot of faces when this all calms down.
Absolutely.
Those saying it’s not that serious are either blind to what’s happening in Iran, Italy & Spain, or their tinfoil hats are too tight & it’s restricting the flow of blood to their brains.
There are 1.5 million people with underlying health issues which make them extremely vulnerable to this virus who have been identified as such by the government but there are several million more who have a 30% plus chance of being hospitalised if they’re infected.
If anyone thinks the health service can cope with a huge spike in cases(brought about by the cretinous behaviour of those piling onto the Tube this morning, or otherwise ignoring social distancing), then they need to give their head a wobble.
Ah but how do you feel about all these measures, some of them chilling, remain firmly in place for good , long after the pandemic is over. Because they will you know; the Govt is not serious about setting a time limit. Some of them could ;ead to very serious abuses of power on a regular large scale.
Very well said Tim. I absolutely agree with what you say and I cannot possibly agree with those who consider it an infringement of their liberty to be stopped from acting irresponsibly to spread the virus and prevent it from being curbed. Some don’t even accept that the virus is a threat at all, displaying contempt for those who are suffering and dying from it. I think some even weirder people believe it to be a figment of the imagination conjured up by authoritarians to justify some imminent dictatorship. Has this newsletter descended into being an organ of fake news and conspiracy theories? If things don’t improve I shall soon sign out, for good. I am very disappointed indeed having been for many years a supporter of Brexit, ever since voting NO to our continued membership of the Common Market. All I can say is that I am very glad that some of those who contribute here have no influence whatever on the government and never will have, I hope.
Tim you are ABSOLUTELY correct. ABSOLUTELY!
We are clearly a nation of morons – no doubt about it – and I have to ask myself, are those drunken, careless, selfish morons REALLY worth saving. Well, you can guess MY answer.
Thank goodness our small family have been observing basic common sense rules for years.
But then we have all been in a small way of business for all of those years – NEVER having been on ‘Socail Security’ scams.
Yes, we have survived menial jobs….but those menial jobs taught us great lessons….but most of all ..great respect for money and for the delight in having a JOB.
We owe NOTHING TO ANYBODY…………e dept respect.
No 4×4’s, no expensive overseas holidays(two or three time a year) no state of the art Chinese electronic crap.
No moronic ‘video games’, ‘ virtual-reality’ nonsense or Premiership Season Tickets.
The result? We simply MAY have a better chance of survival – viruses or NOT!
We strive to live within our means………surely one of the GOLDEN RULES?
As a vulnerable oldie who could well be carried away by this virus, I still say the numbers are out of all proportion to the reaction. It is a nastier ‘flu’, to which people seem to have a wide range of reactions from showing no symptoms to rapid onset and death. Nadine Dorries (MP, 60) had it quietly badly. Her mother, 84 and with a range of underlying health issues, got it from her but was able to function pretty much normally. Go figure.
Nevertheless, despite the oddities, the numbers are dwarfed by, say the 27,000 flu deaths in England and Wales in 2018, or the 200,000 deaths from swine flu ten years ago. And we are always treated to a glut of BBC and C4 documentaries about how the NHS is swamped by ‘normal’ flu, at this time of year. But governments don’t take draconian action, or in fact much action at all. What we don’t normally get is the panic-inducing forensic detail of how it is spreading amongst us. And the government’s ‘boiling a frog’ tactic of small but daily incremental destruction of our liberties.
OK, conspiracy theories are two a penny, but, as the saying goes, just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean they are not out to get you. Follow ‘the money’. Who benefits from the madly overblown shutdown?
There is a very long list, from some getting their dream come true, e.g. the extreme green movement, to some benefitting indirectly like Macron for whom it has suppressed the Gilets Jaunes. Others have been able to stem the migrant tide without losing face; although some shamefully have barred all BUT migrants.
But on the globalist side, the UN and WHO will be using this to justify supra-national quasi-governmental bodies. The beginnings of their wet-dream world government, in the same way the EU gradually morphed its scope. And talking of the EU, watch for this key moment; if Merkel caves and the ECB starts issuing trillions in Eurobonds, something expressly forbidden up to now, the euro is saved and the EU will have unlimited funds to pursue its evil ends.
Talk about a beneficial crisis. The phrase could have been minted for this.
Think of the capital Ukip could have made of this and many many many missed openings for 4 years. And amongst them now comes now… It’s unbelievable that the MSM can ignore huge anomalies , opportunities by the barrel load.. Are ukip going to go along like this forever leaving Brits with no voice. and fought over by cretins and the certain.
There are lots and lots of figures and items of importance not being disclosed. of figures nobody stlii knows eg.
Why has it not spread to other parts of china.? —Does it provide immunity to recovered cases ?–The disease only seems to get an absolute maximum of one in five ( Guesswork )( Wuhan, 1 in 10 ) ? —Is there any immunity at all? — Is every single death due to ” Underlying causes”. ? Does the disease itself Kill ? And if so how tiny a % is that ?—Or is it everybody eventually ?
And SERIOUSLY it does look ” designed ” particularly if you look at those questions and others.
I Guess it’s a secret. Certainly well hidden.. Too important for us. It’s just that we pay the death price , the mess of politics and the final tab.
” . . . .Is every single death due to ” Underlying causes”. . . .”
Don’t the lives of those people matter then, in your book, Mr Spokes? How many old people have “Underlying causes”. I don’t, but my wife has and I don’t want to lose her. She, and I number just two among many thousands in our country who you seem to think should be disposable to save you some temporary inconvenience.
I’m sorry Neville I didn’t want to hurt.
I ‘ve got some conditions too. BUT. I want facts. Like which to cure first. And why. etc. Instead ( maybe). Is there immunity or not ? Or never, or maybe No one is saying.. We have a political decision of sorts. Save the NHS ? I don’t know. For example If there is immunity then there are numerous other options available. Why do so many not get it ? It is politics I fear. They keep secrets and bargain information..
But my prime concern is the Economic crash possibility. Rarely mentioned. That could, because of globalism, be a thousand times worse. And banks and governments have ignored prudence for squeezing the last farthing. Without the economy we probably couldn’t support 20 million souls.
Phil O S Yours is the most sensible opinion I have seen in the last few days.
Kind of you to say.
Mary posted this under today’s ‘Betrayal’ article:
https://unitynewsnetwork.co.uk/event-201-the-pandemic-simulation-exercise-for-the-worlds-elite/
The writer calls it not so much a pandemic as a “plannedemic.” And sure enough the World Bank is planning loans of millions to poorer countries in the form of bonds and derivatives, to make them beholden and controllable for the foreseeable future. Oh, sorry, they say it is to help them.
By accident or conspiracy this is new world order. These powers wont be temporary. Lots of chickens coming home to roost now. Open borders, underfunded health service and a fantasy economy funded by debt. Welcome to the woke state.
Marshall law is here.
My cleaner phoned we earlier this morning to say she wont be along today. Her main office has been closed for three weeks.
Meanwhile her boss was going into work to tell the troops there, that work was nixed. Also went to spread the word by email and phone.
En route he was stopped by the police and given the third degree – where ya goin? what ya doin? why? dont you know there’s a war on? loose lips sink . . . you get the picture.
Thank heaven they dont carry guns. Well only one police car in six has an arsenal of weapons – plus lethal tasers all round of course.
The Government’s meddling has colossally worsened the problem to such an extent that IMHO they will make life not worth living anyway , even if you survive the virus.
If, that is, we let them get away with this.
I received a very insulting reply from my MP when I challenged, about the time limit ; He said that “he can see no evidence, that these measures will last longer than the epidemic.” Pathetic.
I am hoping Trump sticks to his statement yesterday of maintaining lockdown for another 15 days then letting things get back normal for all but the most at risk in order to save the economy. We will soon look pretty silly with a GDP in freefall and a police state in all but name when all the other countries except France and maybe Spain/Italy are back to normality. Are these our new bedfellows?
Police state.?
I haven’t seen a policeman for 14 years. I’m told they are mostly to be seen talking to skimpily clad girls outside pubs late evening. What I thought I was doing being good at maths?