Part 1 can be read here.
However, apparently our poor MPs who, having had a £10,000 sweetener to work remotely from home and actually vote on government business, are not at all happy to get back to the House of Commons. They have to do as the common herd is doing, which is, thanks to that Mogg person, stand in line and queue. Oh, the indignities of life! Just wait until they have to wear the mandatory ‘face coverings’ which, although mostly imported and useless to boot, most of the still-terrified public want everyone to wear in public places and on public transport. Notice that masks are now known as ‘face coverings’ presumably to appease Boris who before the ‘war’ had been reported as describing one section of the community who wear face covering as a matter of course as looking like ‘letter boxes’, much to the annoyance of the left who are now falling over themselves to wear them, even wearing the latest fashionable colour presumably with designer logo and all for less than £15 for three.
Funny, I’ve not seen many of the ‘fashion’ face coverings being worn by people queuing up to use the local food bank. And obviously £15 out of their universal credit or benefit cheque may be just a little difficult for them to afford. That’s if they can find a local outlet for them, tough if they need to use public transport to get around from June 15th as they presumably won’t be allowed on public transport anyway.
Surprisingly, somebody in government has come up with another good idea to involve the population not at work but unafraid to go out into the big wide world, recruiting an army of volunteers to stand around, presumably wearing masks and personal protective equipment, to remind those travelling on public transport that they must wear a mask. Interestingly the ‘unions’ are not in favour of this initiative, why I just can’t imagine.
How the millennial generation sees this is anyone’s guess. Many either on leave from colleges or universities or furloughed by employers on 80% of full pay will have enjoyed the brilliant weather of the last few weeks and are now only just starting to notice that their lives may be changing just a little bit as they wait sometimes for hours in a car to fulfill their natural desire to buy drive-in takeaway fast food and coffee, or queue like sullen prisoners as they shuffle in line towards the rewards on offer at a price from the local chippy or coffee vendor. Still if they do this, millennials who self-designate as male will be able to shuffle along with jeans at half-mast without comment.
Local government having had to put their declared ‘climate emergency’ and ‘green’ strategies on hold are now, if our council is anything to go by, designing road traffic ‘one way improvements’, wider pavements, curtailing on street parking and putting pavement barriers outside shops so that we can all queue in safety in the rain or cold before being let into the shop of choice by a Covid-marshal complete with hi-viz and whistle.
One council has asked local schools to provide artwork to pretty up the barriers and also said that their ‘civil enforcement officers’ (that’s parking wardens to you and me) will be asked to provide additional assistance to their colleagues in the police service if it becomes necessary for ‘public safety’ or crowd control. Just what powers they have to direct council workers to do this in these circumstances is not clear and has not been explained.
Apparently lines of obediently queuing people trying to do shopping in what’s left of businesses in the High Street have so alarmed the city great and good that pavements will be widened to allow queues of people to do so in safety and sit at tables placed outside coffee shops and restaurants so that we can all enjoy the delights of Parisian ‘cafe culture’. Four weeks of fine weather and house arrest seems to have led many to believe that the British weather has permanently changed too.
Already small business owners are saying that excessive distance and safety measures will make their business unviable and they will not re-open. How are coffee shops, restaurants, pubs (already closing at unprecedented rates), hairdressers, driving schools, coach companies, hotels, conference centres – the list goes on and on – going to survive if they are forced to cut their footfall to allow for all these distance and health and safety measures? I can’t wait to sit in the street trying to eat a croissant, drink coffee and chat with friends, while enjoying the noise and smells of passing traffic.
Just how long are the public, those that are not afraid to go out into this brave new world of the new normal, going to put up with queuing, which in itself is irritating enough, so that they can graciously be allowed to enter, having themselves cleaned a trolley or basket and wearing a face mask and gloves while watching with dismay as people quite literally, as we say these days, hide their faces and jump out of the way?
What we are seeing is mass fear driven by propaganda, where families, often enthralled by the latest ‘talking head’, are meekly following the latest ‘law’, unwilling to send their children to school, unwilling themselves to return to work while enjoying all the benefits of their middle class public sector employment on full pay of course, while others, working remotely, dream up half-baked restrictions that have little effect on virus spread but very long term effects on the small business and self-employed. At the same time some of us watch in disbelief as thousands of mostly millennials and the disaffected, are allowed to ‘demonstrate’ in London breaking every ‘law’ while police officers ‘kneel’ and take no action.
Welcome to the ‘new normal’, the new dystopian normal it seems of fear, restrictions on liberty and free speech, of mass surveillance not only by the apparatus of the state, but it seems now from an army of ‘volunteers’ quite ready to be part of the new culture.
Years of conditioning by political pygmies; over-paid media with its own agenda; dumbed-down education which has destroyed competition discipline and the work ethic; government welfare benefits and a lack of professionalism has produced a fearful nation half of which are apparently willing to give up on freedom and liberty for health and safety and so deserves neither.
”… an army of ‘volunteers’ quite ready to be part of the new culture…” And that’s the scary thing: that there are people who are willing to line up behind the bully-boys in the belief that this will ensure their own security. They are also the ”snitchers” – the ones willing to dob in their neighbours because that puts them on the ”right side” of authority.
We’ve seen it before. History has a way of repeating itself. We must only hope that there are still more of US (the ones thinking for themselves, still with moral compass, a desire for the greater good and the courage to stand up for it) than there are of them: the lily-livered, the weak and the cowardly. No doubt we know who they are.
By the style of your writing Norman, I take it that you are indeed taking the mickey ! – That’s OK then, and welcome friend ! ….. I am very unhappy right now, as I haven’t seen my Grandkids for many weeks, and my money has gone to pot ! – Unhappiness is turning to real anger, as I received a demand for my car licence at an increased amount ! – Then an email demand for TV licence payment, but from the Netherlands. (scam) ! ….. Just wondering if I will have to do a Fagin, and ‘Pick a pocket or two’ ! – Never too old to learn new tricks, and with a face covering as well ! ….. I have punched a wall in shear anger, but I feel it time to punch a few idiots too. – Watch out Westminster, I just might pay you a visit in frustration ! – If I am sent to prison, my money worries end. – TV without licence begins, and I won’t need a car ! – That’s better, I’m laughing now ! ! !
Norman, I kept thinking of Orwell’s 1984. I feel though there is a big difference so far. It will vary in different parts of UK but hopefully ‘the proles’ are an overwhelming majority.
And, again hopefully, we have an advantage Orwell could not foresee the internet. So long as that survives.
Members of Parliament who refuse to resume their seats in the House of Commons should be made to stand down and allow a by election to take place in their constituencies. I am sick and tired of our lazy elected representatives riding roughshod of the electorate. They expect the population to return to work and quite rightly so, but are reluctant to do it themselves. Its a tough world out there, and if they can’t hack it, they should stand down and allow somebody else more capable to take their place. Lets face it rightly or wrongly the recent demonstrations have driven several coaches and horses through the governments Covid 19 policy and strategy. Time to get real and axe the whole futile policy and learn to live with the virus like we do with other viruses, and stop hiding away from it. There is absolutely no guarantee whatsoever that there will ever be a vaccine for Covid 19 tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, or ever, no more than there has been for that other Coronavirus, the Common Cold. Best to get used to that fact right now.
Very true Colin.
Well said Colin. Fully agree.
“mass fear driven by propaganda” which benefits who? The answer to that question reveals the true enemy within who we will have to defeat to secure the future of those who will come after us. They must not be given reason to feel that we let them down.