Fears, Tiers and a Madness to the Method

"I hardly know, Sir, just at present - at least I knew who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then."

So said Alice as she took her early steps in Wonderland, having gone through the looking glass. And it is what increasing numbers of people in the UK now feel like, after a year - yes, twelve months - of restrictions born out of speedily introduced laws after being told 'Just three weeks to flatten the curve' by the government. Image - via Twitter

When Lockdown 1.0 ended, the Prime Minister suggested that was the end of it. Except of course, egged on by the doom-mongering of Messrs Whitty and Vallance, we soon had Lockdown 2.0, which, when that ended, was supposed to allow us to celebrate Christmas. Yet the tier system which took its place was even more baffling and for most, was Lockdown by another name. Until January of course and here we are still - in Lockdown 3.0

And Boris Johnson assures us that it will be the last and his roadmap to freedom is 'irreversible'. In the meantime, we are supposed to meekly comply with new rules and laws, submitting to being torn apart by government diktat. Diktat issued using powers by the way, that the government has given itself and obligingly passed by an unquestioning number of MPs of all parties - not just the Tories - in the House of Commons.

There are, now, millions of true stories out there in the madness of the Wonderland that the UK has become, of fractured families, broken businesses, ruined lives, mental health crises and deaths from a wide variety of causes, enabled by a health care system that remains effectively closed to anything and anybody unless it is, allegedly at least, due directly to COVID-19. And this is likely, despite the PM's fine words, to go on until well into summer and who knows how long beyond that.

There is madness in this prospect, along with what has become a hallmark of the Johnson government. Most people will willingly go along with temporary rules and laws when they make sense but as time has passed, what the government has come up with has been as far from that as it could be. Being encouraged to tell tales on neighbours is classic, textbook stuff from the discredited manual of the old East German Stasi (secret police) for example, and many people understandably began to feel doubtful about draconian rules coming from a government with a poor record of knowing what it is doing.

Despite the rationality of some, there are a number of supporters of lockdowns who can, on occasion, appear to be like members of a doomsday cult, attacking anybody who disagrees and seemingly convinced that we are all going to die unless we stayed at home, washed our hands endlessly, wore masks in perpetuity, opened windows and obeyed any other apocalyptic pronouncement from the looking-glass world of the powers-that-be.

Yet it is, in some ways, understandable when ordinary people are faced with comments like those of Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty when he warned us not to hug our loved ones "if you want them to survive to be hugged again".

Perhaps Mr Whitty - an unelected advisor remember, whose comfortable salary is untouched by what he has imposed on the British people - might do well to remember that people can, do and have died of despair.

What we have been through, and shared by many others around the world, is a deprivation that I don't think humans have ever experienced before. People need and indeed want, to believe in the common good and to trust that we are governed with the three Cs; calm, compassion and common sense. Yet how can we get away from feeling that current policies stem from a mixture of panic, bullying, a complete absence of logic and an overarching ignorance of the way real people live?

Graphic - Ocean Recovery

https://oceanrecoverycentre.com/

When any government issues confusing, contradictory and plain insane orders that challenge reason and morality, people will start to say 'No'. People begin to feel that this is less about 'keeping us safe' (an impossibility in a truly free society) and more about developing a level of control that is designed to keep a weak government in power.

COVID-19 is not a hoax, it is real and it can lead to other conditions which can be fatal. But there are better ways of dealing with it than those we have seen and suffered from. There are always alternatives if one looks for them.

All MPs need reminding; they owe their positions via the gift of the people. And what the people give, the people can take away. Another reminder - a number of MPs, including former members of the government, took their positions for granted over Brexit. They are no longer MPs.

Alice grew tall at the end of her story, cried "Stuff and nonsense!" - and the whole pack of cards came tumbling down.

© Kevan James 2021