History Teaches Us That “Emergency” Measures Could Be in Place for Years, Says Lord Sumption
Lord Sumption said on Good Morning Britain that face masks and social distancing could last for years, saying it is “politically unrealistic” to expect the Government to remove these “emergency” measures anytime soon because the public has become quite fond of them. The Mail has the story.
Face masks and social distancing could be in place for another decade, Lord Sumption has claimed.
The former Supreme Court judge warned restrictions on Britons’ freedoms could last as long as rationing after the Second World War.
He said it was “politically unrealistic” to expect the Government to backtrack on social controls anytime soon because the public had become so used to them.
Lord Sumption suggested Britons had actually started to take comfort in restrictions because they made them feel safe.
Lord Sumption compared the continued enforcement of mask wearing and social distancing to that of wartime food rationing after the Second World War.
An interesting parallel is the continuation of wartime food rationing after the last war. People were in favour of that because they were in favour of social control.
[But] in the 1951 General Election, the Labour Party lost its majority entirely because people with five years more experience of social control got fed up with it. Sooner or later, that will happen in this country.
The Mail’s report points to senior officials who have already hinted that mask mandates and social distancing rules will re-emerge post-lockdown.
SAGE scientists have already hinted that masks and social distancing measures may need to be reinstated in future winters when respiratory viruses like Covid find it easier to spread.
And Mary Ramsay, the Head of Immunisation at Public Health England, admitted that restrictions could stay in place for years on Monday because Britain will need to wait for other countries’ [sic] to catch up with their vaccine programmes.
Boris Johnson’s roadmap sets no date for the end of using masks and social distancing but the plan is for most legally binding curbs to go by June 21st.
Lord Sumption highlights that some politicians have emailed him privately to say that they agree with what he is saying, but “[don’t] dare to speak out”.
That, I think, is a very serious state of affairs.
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This is the ‘new normal’
“Lord Sumption highlights that some politicians have emailed him privately to say that they agree with what he is saying, but “didn’t dare to speak out”.
Scared of what ? Losing the whip ?
Crossing the floor would hardly make much difference.
If you ‘don’t dare speak out’ – what the f. are you doing taking up space in parliament. I’d call you a ‘waste of space’.
… and I’m not naive enough to discount the role of party discipline up to a point if you want to get things done.
I’ve told my pathetic excuse for an MP many times that he needs to cross his Whip but he’s only interested in furthering his lacklustre political career. It’s nothing to do with representating constituents. No intelligence, no curiosity, no backbone. What can you expect.
“He said it was “politically unrealistic” to expect the Government to backtrack on social controls anytime soon because the public had become so used to them.”
Well, I have news for you. I have not got so used to them, and I find the whole affair abhorrent, in a so-called democratic society. This country has become more akin to Soviet Russia or China. It is very anti-British, very anti-Human, and I will fight every single day of my life to have our civil liberties returned.
Indeed. I will never comply, and I hope at least a significant minority will do the same. They better start building new prisons if they are serious about this.
Not only have I not got used to them but I find the sight of them more intolerable by the day as it is clearer and clearer that it is pointless to wear them.
I would settle for the abandonment of mandatory wearing even though shopkeepers and caterers could still impose their requirements. Then we could sort out the good guys from the bad guys for ourselves.
But first we have got a huge job in weaning the public off them. For a start target those wearing them outside. When I pass any masker not apparently on their way to a shop I politely tell them that there is no need to wear a mask outside and that they should instead enjoy the fresh air. If we all did that in time the message might get home.
My brother, who doesn’t wear masks and is on board with the rest of us, was at the petrol station, OUTSIDE, paying for his petrol at the window, when some fully masked up coronaphobe, came out of the actual shop, and walked past him, staring. He then called my brother a c*nt under his breath but loud enough so he would hear! My brother was too shocked to come back with an immediate retort, but eventually shook his head and just laughed at the irony. Ok, here’s the question, folks: What would be YOUR riposte?
Baaaa!Baaaaa!
Laughter, the best medicine.
In the IoM, the last two times we ‘battled covid and won’ the masks and distancing were ditched very quickly indeed and the few mask wearers stuck out like a sore thumb.
However, I’m not sure how it will go after this current phase of bedwetting ends. It needs to be govt led reassurance, but I don’t think they are up for that.
yes. we can see no-one wears them unless forced to
They only think that they are forced to and the Government delights in that.
“no-one wears them unless forced to”
‘Fraid not!
They are symbols are conformity. The biosecurity fascist totalitarian regime will never remove them.
There was never a rule or regulation in the Third Reich that compelled people to use the zeig heil salute at the start of a conversation, everyone knew you just did, or else.
Towards the end of the war it got rarer and rarer, I posted a report a while ago of a neighbourhood Hitler Youth returning home after a stint on the front not understanding why he was no longer being saluted and why the police were doing nothing about it.
As a historic parallel, the last few months of the war in Europe are particularly scary, in that they saw the emergence of the Nazi “Flying Courts Martial”, authorised to mete out summary justice, including executions, for some of the most trivial “thought crimes”. “Did someone question the need for mask wearing? String the bastard up!”
Yes, although I seem to recall that Donitz’s government attempted to maintain this custom after they’d almost lost and Hitler was already dead. Quite bizarre really.
Europe and the Antipodes appear to inhabit some strange parallel universe.
Pretty much the entire rest of the world is pressing on with life as normal.
The U.S. is opening up; the battle of ideas there convincingly won by the lockdown sceptics; two metres reduced to one in schools; decreasing numbers of states mandating masks……
We can follow suit or look increasingly deranged, dumb, hopelessly batty on the world stage; France and Britain’s seats on the security council starkly unmerited.
And, sooner or later, the democratic process will reflect that shift, whatever the partial, frankly mad, polling may currently indicate.
We mostly grew up with controlled pub opening hours which were introduced as an emergency measure during WW1 in an attempt to stop arms production workers turning up pissed (same goes for controlled drugs).
Those regulations stayed in force for over 100 years until abolished by G. Brown, the only fun thing he ever did.
It’s a difficult one to predict but I think once given the choice people will settle for not wearing the masks except during a ‘winter season’….. until it becomes obvious…. maybe a few years down the line, that it’s all stuff and nonsense.
Everyday walking the dogs to the park and back my Partner and I pick up these filthy, disgusting, unhygienic, abhorrent and totally unnecessary masks that have been discarded and put them in the nearest bin. It is a vile habit and not very “environmentally friendly”. One assumes they have been jettisoned by people who think they are about to die any second from the latest teenage mutant ninja. Odd and selfish behaviour from someone who supposedly thinks they are “protecting” Granny or whoever from themselves. Masks should be banned together with “anti” social distancing – period.
It’s a bit like a small child handing over sticky sweet papers to his mother and wanting her to clean his fingers; i.e. I don’t want this on my person…. which sums up the mentality of a certain percentage of the population. No different to the folk who discard their lunch packaging or dog pooh bags on the roadside. Where I live you find Care home personnel discarding their masks on the ground before getting into their cars to drive home.
I had a little jolly to A&E on Thursday. I was the only patient not wearing a mask! The filthy looks that I was given from other patients was something to behold as they were expecting the staff to force a mask on me. I’m medically exempt. There were a couple of other patients in for conditions which are medically exempt but they still wore masks… One admitting that they were scared not to wear them because of the reaction from their fellow citizens…. Incredibly sad state of affairs.