Nanny knows best

I wasn’t going to post anything about HMG’s latest nannying restrictions which, according to our great leader, brought in because the UK population can’t behave itself. Knee-jerk reactions and "gesture politics" seem part and parcel of Mr Bumble’s government, but even so the measures brought in earlier this week are likely to have little or any effect on the rising numbers of Coronavirus infections.

Regrettably, they are much more likely to impact in a profoundly negative way, on the UK’s already struggling pub and hospitality sectors which, after being totally closed for 3 months, have adapted well to coping with control measures such as distancing, hand-sanitising and track and trace. Forcing pubs and restaurants to close at 10pm will do very little to prevent infections from spreading but will have a massive effect on their ability to operate and ultimately their profitability.

Seasoned bloggers such as Pub Curmudgeon and Tandleman have already covered the potential impact of Doris’s latest ad-hoc measures, so I won’t elaborate further, apart from saying the new regulations are petty, spiteful and next to useless and have been introduced by a PM desperate to be seen doing something.

The MSM have been obsessed with Corona virus, since it first reared its ugly head, with newspapers, and other news organisations driving much of the Covid-19 hysteria that continues to dominate the headlines. Having harped on for months about a so-called “second wave,” they’re beside themselves with glee now that infections are seen to be rising.

They’re willing it to happen, and I’d argue they also want it to happen, because bad news sells more copies of their sordid tabloids, (some broadsheets are almost as bad). They also receive more clicks on their equally biased, on-line sites. Not content with spreading mass-hysteria, they’re now pushing for a second lock-down, oblivious to the damage it would cause to an already shattered economy and to people’s general health and mental well-being.

The media fail to realise there are other things out there that can kill us, beside Covid, and in the longer term a broken economy will do far worse damage than this novel-virus. Unfortunately, the media are the ones driving government policy; hardly surprising when you have a populist government, driven by banal, three-word slogans.

The licensed trade and hospitality sectors are easy targets and imposing further control on them not only fits well with their "nannying" agenda, it also complies with the agenda of all repressive governments over the years who wish to prevent people meeting together. If the plebs are allowed to enjoy a few drinks in a pub, this might cause dissent when the peasants start discussing and comparing their lot in life, to that of the ruling classes.

The draconian and spiteful measures brought in under the government’s Emergency Public Health Act, are unprecedented in peacetime, and would be unusual even in times of war. Preventing people meeting others in their own homes, or even outdoors, will split families and cause even more misery, and encouraging people to snitch on their neighbours, really is sinking to a new low.

This behaviour has shades of Nazi Germany, where the Gestapo relied on citizens to shop dissenters, or those they considered guilty of other “crimes” against the state. Their East German successors the Stasi, carried on with this, so that by the time the regime fell, there was a Stasi file on virtually every citizen. People don’t seem to learn from history, as the UK Corona Act 2020, is an enabling piece of legislation that gives the government carte blanche to do what ever they wish, all under the guise of controlling a virus with a mortality rate of 0.5-1.0%.

In the wrong hands such legislation has parallels with Adolf Hitler’s infamous Enabling Act of 1933, which gave him dictatorial powers, allowing him to rule Germany by decree. We are going down a very dangerous road here, and yet many are cheering the government on, with some demanding even more control over their sad and sordid little lives.

Returning for a moment, to the absurdity of 10pm closing. Footage, taken last night in central London, shows hordes of people, all piling out, en masse, from pubs and bars. Crowded together, with no possibility of social distancing, whereas before, when people were treated as sensible adults, they would leave with a slow trickle in dribs and drabs, once they’d had enough or their business had been concluded.

And all because Mr Bumble said pubs and restaurants must close at 10pm!