BRENDAN O’NEILL
Covid authoritarianism is out of control. It’s time the people pushed back.
We can’t go on like this. We cannot continue to allow the government to control every aspect of our lives. We cannot idly accept that the state has the right to introduce rules and regulations that dictate everything from how long we can stay in the pub to who we can invite to our weddings. We cannot sit back and watch as government scientists use jumped-up, fact-lite graphs of fear to try to terrify and pacify the populace and prep us for yet another onslaught on our liberties. We cannot just watch and nod as officials shut down more areas of the economy, with a stroke of their pen, plunging Britain further into the worst recession on record. This is not sustainable. Something has to give, something has to break. The only important question right now is this: how can we make sure that happens?
Today, Boris Johnson announced a new round of restrictions on our lives and liberties. Pubs and restaurants across the land will have to close at 10pm. Cops and Covid marshalls will patrol pubs and levy fines against any establishment that dares to serve a pint at a minute past 10. More workers, including bar staff and shop workers, will be compelled to wear masks. Fines for failing to wear a mask or follow other Covid rules will be raised to £200. Anyone planning a wedding for 30 people will need to rethink – the government has decreed that no more than 15 people may celebrate your nuptials. The irrational ‘Rule of Six’ – why not a rule of five? Or seven? Or 12? – has been extended to include indoor sports. And people are once again being told to work from home, having just a few weeks ago been told to get back to the office. And all of this new authoritarianism could last for six months. Six months.
Just like that, the government has ruled that for six months you cannot have a proper piss-up, cannot have a medium-sized wedding, cannot go anywhere without masking up first, cannot play a five-a-side football match indoors. And, naturally, this is all being done in the name of protecting the NHS from a potential catastrophic hike in Covid cases, which is also the justification for the numerous other unprecedented restrictions on our liberties outlined in the Coronavirus Act and recent ministerial decrees. It feels like Groundhog Day. This stopping and starting and stopping again of everyday life is incredibly disorientating and destructive. It leads to a kind of permanent limbo, with people’s lives and plans held in suspension. It robs us of our agency, of our ability to plot our own destinies, of our capacity to be free, meaningful citizens. It reduces us to passive creatures whose only role is to follow rules. The government is demoralising the public to an extraordinary degree.