The UK Parliament have enabled lockdowns to continue, but the government is wounded, much more than the precious vote would indicate. It is important to assess the situation. The House of Commons had a disastrous vote on 1st December, in favour of the government’s new format, lunatic lockdown policies. It was 290 votes in favour, with 78 against.
We have to thank the Covid Recovery Group of MP’s as they, together with others, increased the numbers rebelling against the damage the government is causing to the nation. 53 Conservatives voted against their own government and they were joined by all 8 DUP MP’s, 15 Labour MP’s and 2 Independents, including Piers Corbyn’s brother Jeremy. Well done to them all.
There are 650 MP’s and what is significant about this vote is that it was a minority of MP’s who supported it. Although there have been many votes on issues in the past when governments have had policies passed without the majority of MP’s supporting them, this is significantly much more different.
This issue of lockdowns is one where MP’s have been voting without any democratic mandate from the public, either through a General Election or a Referendum.They simply do not have our authority to act in this way. This was pointed out in the letter sent to all MP’s by the new National Alliance for freedom from lockdowns. This and many more pleas to MP’s from across the UK would hopefully have affected the thinking of the MPs.
There has been an increase in the number of lockdown sceptic MPs so it is an encouraging sign that lobbying them can work. It could even be that we helped convince Labour to abstain but the reality is that if they had voted against then the government would have lost the vote.
More could be said about who voted and who abstained and so on, but the essential point is that this Parliament has sold the British people out. There is no doubt about that as, for them to vote that way, in order to reach Parliament on that day, they had to travel through the ghost town of London with virtually nothing allowed to be open. The new tier system changes the situation a little but fundamentally 99% of the country is going to have lockdown restrictions which are worse than they have had prior to the beginning of November.
One positive is that in theory it will now be a little easier to protest about the lockdowns with the new legislation, even though there will be some impediments. There is likely to be a fresh vote on 16th January 2021, so the best action is to actively campaign for an end to all lockdowns from now until then. The absolute nonsense of all aspects of the lockdown policies can be demonstrated by all legitimate forms of campaigning. It may not seem so, but the government is on the defensive.
We are slowly but surely winning, which is a credit to all those who have worked so hard, in the front line or in the rear, of the many valiant organisations which have fought for freedom from lockdowns. This includes the small number of people in the media who have put their heads above the parapet to stand up for freedom and liberty.
There is no room for complacency though.The government is a formidable foe. They represent an establishment which controls most of the mainstream media and a host of other people who never want to give us our freedom back. The police and military intelligence services and PR companies are being used to promote their propaganda and to attack those who oppose the government lockdown policies. This is a gross misuse of power but that is the situation.
The best way forward to end all UK lockdowns is for everyone to work together as happens with a referendum campaign. The National Alliance for freedom from lockdowns has been formed to act as an umbrella coordinating support body for all who are campaigning to end lockdowns. This a very worthwhile banner to stand by, either directly or indirectly. There are over 160 National and local organisations, not including the 78 MP’s but many others.
The government has got away with lockdowns because we have been divided. They can be defeated simply by all working together. There were 16 Conservative MPs abstaining in the vote on 1st December alongside the bulk of Labour and the other opposition parties. Significantly no MPs other than Conservatives voted for these lockdown proposals. That has to be an untenable position. No proposals of such magnitude should ever be embarked upon by Parliament without the endorsement of calling a General Election or a Referendum. In fact this should have been done months ago as the government has been putting extreme measures on the British public without their consent. It is time for us to take back control !
Boris looked like death on the front bench as if he expected defeat which was impossible so he is obviously deeply worried and weakened by his bonkers Lockdown policies – The benefit of this is that if he caves to Barnier he will be even more worried and weakened which may make him stick to his Brexit promises although he has backed down from every one of his time deadlines – As infections are declining it indicates herd immunity is arriving making the Vaccine as pointless as Lockdown and Mask – But our authoritarian authorities ego is now so huge with everyone full of FEAR and obeying every over reach they will want to continue particularly with the iconic Mask as it is a diktat so literally in your face the satisfaction is irresistible – They will surely come up with another reason for it as the data increasingly shows how it can never be effective against a virus.
Anthony Webber in his 4th paragraph states that the government did not have the authority for what it did.
Oh yes it did.
As I have been trying to explain without success, when we vote for a party manifesto “package” we not only CONSENT (unwittingly or otherwise) to the whole deal but because the system is rigged to require us to give one party or another a majority, then once the majority is established we have authorised it to do just as it wishes with regard to any matters arising outside the manifesto. e.g. Covid..
Other commentators complain about Tory MPs. They too have consented to this bogus democracy. Readers might like to visit UK Column and listen to the series of “Dissidents Guide to the Constiution”,currently on Episode 3, ably led by Alex Thomson ex GCHQ desk officer of extraordinary skill
I hope to have some input to Episodes 4 & 5, if anonymously, but for the time the following may suffice.
The true function of the Commons is historically as a check on the Executive, i.e. the Crown.
When the Crown prerogative to choose Ministers still existed there was no PARTY programme in the Commons, consented to by MPs and voters alike in advance of proper discussion and MPS were free to listen to their constituents and not whipped by party. Each issue which arose was discussed and voted on, on its merits and with regard to the individual liberty of the people. .With the modern party system about the time of Karl Marx came collectivism as proven by the manifesto package from which there is no dissent allowed.
The party system is the revolution against our constitution which once required all three institutions to freely consent to legislation before it could be made law.
Royal Assent being the final hurdle it would have to pass. The Party System has made that Royal Assent a dangerous fiction, since no Monarch has persoinally assented since 1854 and such functions are performed by a Lords Committee, thus removing the Umpire to which we once could appeal from the reach of the people. No wonder we feel helpless.
My offers to explain more fully seem to have no takers but being a bit of a bulldog, contact john.cruttwell.sfr.fr for your free copy. As that scoundrel Churchill once said:” If you will not fight for the right when you can win without bloodshed, there may come a time….
Thanks Viv. print is tiny but hopefully not too many typos this time.
To my mind your argument is sound, accordianman7.
I worried about the economic devastation the lockdown would cause right back in March. I went on the London anti-lockdown demo on the 28th because I felt I had to do something. It astonishes me that so many Conservative MPs are colluding with this.
We need a new genuinely conservative party to vote for.
Xantilor, you are entirely right there. The present so called Conservative Party is more like a Liberal Democrat Party in makeup with politicians with little or no real political conviction. They have done very little conserving in recent years, but the good news is there are a number of new parties on the rise right now that will occupy the right of centre ground, who by the time of the next General Election will very definitely prove to be a very formidable and credible opposition to the present so called Conservative Party, who have let us down time and time again. Their worries will be not how well Labour are doing because they are in their death throes as well, but how well those new ‘true’ conservative parties will be.
So, another non-expert spouting drivel. If I want advice on a technical matter, I’ll ask an expert. Certainly not a journalist or “political commentator.”
Most of these people see the covid pandemic as an opportunity to achieve fame/notoriety.
There were/are NO simple solutions to the pandemic, no possibility of lack of pain, even with hindsight.
The only reason infections/deaths are relatively low, is we had lockdown(s).as has every other country in the world, the success depending on how well they were adhered to.
And don’t mention Sweden. they have seen the error of their ways and are coming round to the majority viewpoint.
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/sweden-coronavirus-response-experiment
https://www.france24.com/en/20200517-sweden-s-covid-19-strategy-has-caused-an-amplification-of-the-epidemic
So Sweden with did worse than the UK then?
To quote from your referenced article in Wired:
“Sweden stood 15th on the grim global ranking list of Covid-19 deaths per capita, and fifth in Europe, below only Belgium, Italy, Spain, and UK”
Did not all of the latter have lockdowns?
How did we with lockdowns and 891 deaths per million as of today fare “better than Sweden” with no lockdown and 698 dpm?
And that’s before we take account of all the damage and deaths caused by lockdowns and studiously unreported by governments and media alike.
No wonder some don’t want this mentioned.
For an expert try looking up Judy Mikovit or Dolores Cahill and ignore those in the pay of government.
Good advice, Jack.
It is clear that you are fully in favour of lockdowns. That is a point of view, but perhaps it would have more credibility if you quoted better sources of information than ‘Wired’ and ‘France24’. I have just read the latter article and found it typical of so many within the legacy media – the failure to delineate what is meant by a ‘case’, the uncritical acceptance of death rates that we now know to have been massaged by amended certification policies, the hyperbolic response to a death rate which is actually fairly typical for a bad flu season and for an elderly demographic, and the failure to quote any dissenting viewpoint. If you want to convince anyone reading your comment, you will need to provide more convincing arguments. In any case, I’m afraid that horse has bolted. Most sensible people have already accepted that the official response has been a huge overreaction, which is why it is grossly inappropriate for you to refer to the article above as ‘drivel’. The article was eminently reasoned and sensible, and addressed a specific issue – tactics in the fight against lockdown. You may not agree with the premise, but to say that the author’s discussion of tactics was drivel is plainly nonsensical and off-topic.
Nobody knows, or can know, how well the pandemic has been handled. That will only become apparent in the next five to ten years. When the COVId arrived everybody was working in a total (knowledge) vacuum. Only now are some facts coming to light. No-one could have handled the situation any better. There was/is no alternative.
So stop whinging, grin and bear it, it’s nowhere near as bad as Nazis dropping bombs on us. There is light at the end of the tunnel.
Total lack of alternative solutions put up by the whingers I note. (That’s because there aren’t any.)
Great Barrington Declaration.
There is now plenty of evidence to guide us, and lockdowns need not figure.
“So, another non-expert spouting drivel.” And your expertise would be – hospital engineer, Harold?
Harry Again, you say ” When the COVId arrived everybody was working in a total (knowledge) vacuum. Only now are some facts coming to light.”………..Only now? Only now? Really Harry ?
By the start of May it was clear that the overwhelming majority of those Covid19 killed were extremely aged, or already had dangerous medical conditions. By May (after most of the deaths from Covid19 up to now had already happened) the average age of its victims was noticed to be over eighty years old.
Apart from very few, Covid19 only kills those who are at death’s door anyway. That is a fact that was obvious by May. Clearly a vaccine is unnecessary for most people.
That’s OK until it’s your parent/ granny dies.
The most sensible alternative solution is to simply get on with life, as we did many times before in the event of nasty bouts of flu. If silly people want to skulk at home, put nappies on their faces, refrain from human contact and generally show themselves to be cowardly, easily-fooled and ill-informed, they are perfectly free to do so, but they should return the courtesy and leave the rest of us to live our lives.
spot on