There is no empirical evidence for the raft of civil liberties crushing and economy wrecking measures Boris Johnson announced yesterday but yet folks still want more. A YouGov poll showed 13% of us thought Boris had gone too far, 32% thought he had it about right but 45% wanted more restrictions, saying that the most illiberal Government in modern British Government had not gone far enough. Cripes, as Boris might say. Why am I not surprised?
In years to come, folks will deny that they ever supported Boris and signed up to this madness. But right now they have been cowed by Project fear into believing we must act because their very lives are at stake.
Take the Government claim that if we did not act, then 50,000 a day could be catching Covid within six weeks. That was, as the Government knew it would be, quickly reported by elements of the Mainstream Media as being 50,000 would catch not could catch. The 50,000 number comes from assuming cases will double every seven days. But if one looks at France or Spain which are meant to be “ahead of us”, that is not what is happening, nor are cases in the UK actually doubling at anything like a rate of once every seven days. So this is fantasy data prediction.
And this has been par for the course since the getgo. Remember the lurid claims inspired by the work of Professor Pantsdown of Imperial College of how 500,000 could die or how the NHS would be swamped. They were fantasy too. The NHS has not enjoyed a less busy six months in living memory. But that is not what folks think.
The average Brit reckons 7% of us have died from Covid. The actual number is, according to the Government, 0.07%. And that is those who tested positive for Covid and died within 28 days. Since nearly all had other conditions, many of the 0.07% may actually have died from something else. We have, as a nation, been scared to death and as a result, will sign up for whatever nonsense the Government imposes and indeed will pathetically beg for more liberty-crushing madness.
Each morning, when I take Joshua to nursery in England, on the way I nip into the Lewis’s patisserie in Farndon to buy him a croissant. Today I was told that as I was not wearing a mask as a takeaway customer, I needed to give my name and number and that as of tomorrow, I shall not be served unless I wear a mask. Folks sitting inside the store will, of course, not be wearing a mask and so are free to breathe their germs at will. This is utter madness. How can anyone think this makes sense? Does Mr Covid only jump down the throats of takeaway customers as they give their orders in a socially distanced fashion to a lady behind a Perspex screen?
Natch’ I gave a false number and told them that they would not, as a result, be enjoying my custom again until either the Government diktat’s ended or they stood up to nanny state.
Meanwhile, back the other side of the bridge, here in Wales, to show that we are different to the accursed English, our half-witted first Minister Mark Drakeford, a man who makes your average sheep look like a mastermind semi-finalist, has ordered that as of Thursday not only must pubs close at 10 PM but so too must off-licenses. Can anyone explain to me how this additional nanny state measure will stop the spread of Covid?
But 45% of folks think the measures do not go far enough; they are begging for house arrest with the military enforcing the new rules.