When
this madness began, I behaved as if a new and fanatical religion was spreading
among us. Be polite and tolerant, I thought. It may be crazy and damaging but
in time it will go away.
Now
it is clear that a new faith, based on fear of the invisible and quite immune
to reason, has all but taken over the country. And it turns out to be one of
those faiths that doesn't have much tolerance for those who don't share it.
My
guess is that about 85 per cent of the population now worship it and will
continue to do so. The rest of us are, as each day goes by, a persecuted
minority, forced to go along with beliefs we do not hold.
·
This obsession with telling us how to look, and
turning us from normal humans into submissive, mouthless flock animals all
decked out in a compulsory uniform is, in my view, part of an unprecedented
assault on our personal liberty in general. Passengers are seen on the London
Tube network
Its
evangelists will not leave you and me alone, but constantly seek to force us to
join. This is why I make such a fuss about the demand to make us all wear
muzzles. This is not about health.
There
is simply not enough evidence to compel us to do so. It is an attempt to force
submission on Covid unbelievers.
That
is why it spreads, despite the absence of any good case for it. In a creepy
development, one of the most powerful scientific papers arguing against it, Why
Face Masks Don't Work: A Revealing Review, last week suddenly vanished from its
usual place on the internet (I still have a copy).
Scotland's
tinpot despot, Nicola Sturgeon, now demands that muzzles are worn in shops, as
well as on public transport, north of the border.
In
Texas, of all states, the governor seeks to make muzzles compulsory in all
public places. The tiny-circulation Guardian newspaper, which just so happens
to be the house journal of the BBC, absurdly compares muzzles to seat belts
(proven a million times to save lives, beyond any doubt) and demands in its main
editorial 'Cover your face'.
·
Now it is clear that a new faith, based on fear
of the invisible and quite immune to reason, has all but taken over the
country. And it turns out to be one of those faiths that doesn't have much
tolerance for those who don't share it [File photo]
The
BBC is then careful to report this prominently. Do not be surprised if the
Government soon follows. Yet, as the Government's own documents and experts
have repeatedly said, evidence for the usefulness of these muzzles is weak. The
Department for Business and Enterprise says clearly: 'The evidence of the
benefit of using a face covering to protect others is weak and the effect is
likely to be small.'
This
obsession with telling us how to look, and turning us from normal humans into submissive,
mouthless flock animals all decked out in a compulsory uniform is, in my view,
part of an unprecedented assault on our personal liberty in general. Stay at
home. Stop working. Don't see your friends or relatives. Submit, submit,
submit. Get used to being told what to do.
And
we do it. I have begun to understand why the atrocious drivel of Fifty Shades
Of Grey was so popular. It seems we really have become a nation of surrendered
masochists.
The
decision to force poor Leicester back into the misery of total shutdown is an
example of this. Craziest of all is the closure of schools in that city, when
school-age children are barely touched by Covid.
This
must make plans to reopen schools in September even less likely to come true.
Does the Government think the education unions won't notice this panic-driven
act and use it to keep the schools shut? Of course they will.
I am
pretty sure this has been done not because it's necessary but because the
hysterical would-be headmaster Matt Hancock wants to keep us under his
thumb.
Behave,
he shrills, or the tuck shop stays closed. Leicester is like the poor boys who
were caned by such headmasters to set an example to the rest.
In
this he is backed up by the increasingly uncuddly Premier Al Johnson, who hawks
the myth that all these deprivations have reduced the incidence of the
disease.
'Do
not undo the sacrifices you have made with reckless behaviour,' says the man
who has recklessly destroyed our economy and is clueless about how to rescue it
from himself.
The
truth is there is still not one eighth of an ounce of evidence that crashing
the economy and keeping us all at home saved a single life. Let us examine the
case for this punitive closure of Leicester.
First
of all, there are these things called 'infections' which sound quite nasty. But
what are they? How many of those who test positive for Covid-19 (in a test that
is highly dubious) have no symptoms? The Government could not tell me.
I
suspect only a tiny proportion are seriously ill. As I keep saying, for most
people the disease is a minor event. It is not the plague.
·
It seems we really have become a nation of
surrendered masochists. The decision to force poor Leicester back into the
misery of total shutdown is an example of this. The city centre is pictured
above
Then
there is the simple question: Are there more infections because we are looking
harder for them? Well, I can tell you this. I asked for a list of testing
stations in Leicester and the dates on which they opened.
One
opened on May 1. All the others – seven of them – have opened since June 18,
the very period during which the supposed surge has taken place.
It
is, in any case, absurd to imagine that the people of Leicester can be confined
in their city and prevented from venturing into nearby towns and villages to
take advantage of the limited freedoms now being restored to us (such as they
are).
Even
the petulant, petty Mr Hancock is not going to confine Leicester in a ring of
steel, as if it were East Berlin in 1961 (though he may dream of such actions).
This
is about power and freedom, and has less and less to do with Covid-19. Soon, as
the terrible economic consequences of Mr Johnson begin to become clear to all,
this may be a lot more important.
The latest crime? Making a cup of tea
Many
in the media treat this period as a bit of a joke, a light-hearted interlude
and a spectator sport, like a holiday or a foreign crisis seen from afar.
I
don't. It scares me stiff. I think something has gone wrong deep inside the
workings of this country. A fire long smouldering below decks has now burst
into the open.
Let
me share a letter I received from a reader: 'I run a small coffee shop and when
the state decreed, I reopened for takeaway (I was 'allowed' also by the local
council to use a small area outside my premises for people to sit down and
drink their takeaways). Occasionally, when the weather has been bad or someone
with an infirmity hasn't been able to take their drink away, I have let them
sit inside.
'This
morning I was visited by the police and warned. I was informed that two
complaints had been made against me for serving drinks inside the premises. All
for making someone a cup of tea and being human enough to let them have it
inside. Last year my business was burgled and trashed and drug dealing was
going on in the park that my business overlooks. And what happened then?
Absolutely nothing. This isn't the kind of country that my grandfather fought
to preserve.'
At the same time, the political cleansing of our schools
and universities continues ferociously. I hear confidentially of heavyweight
intolerance of conservatives at Oxford, who have objected to the planned
removal of the Cecil Rhodes statue there.
Now I receive this from another university, where all
academics have been 'invited' to an online 'discussion' intended to 'disrupt
structural factors that produce white privilege and systemic disadvantage…
'We invite all staff to reflect on their identities and
social positions, taking an 'intersectional' approach. Participants will be
given an opportunity to share perspectives and experiences of institutional
racism at work, including any recommendations for change, with the University's
senior academic leadership team.'
I wouldn't give much for the future careers of anybody
who does not kowtow to this inquisition.
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