© Reuters / Henry NichollsA social distancing sign can be seen inside Stables Market, amid the coronavirus disease outbreak, in Camden, London, Britain, September 19, 2020.
The UK prime minister has, in his infinite wisdom, decided to impose a raft of new restrictions to avoid another lockdown after the first one was such a resounding success. These measures are shameful.
I hope you all enjoyed those precious few weeks of semi-freedom. I, like all Britons, will look back on the summer of 2020 fondly. A time when we all dressed like dandy highwaymen to go shopping and surrendered our personal details to pub staff wearing visors and wielding thermometer pistols. We gathered in groups of seven, sometimes more, Rishi Sunak bought us all dinner, the Welsh re-opened the border, and millionaires knelt in empty stadia as sport returned to our screens. Shall we ever know such halcyon days again?
Not anytime soon, if our dear leader's latest statement is anything to go by. Earlier today, Boris Johnson decided to relieve himself over the nation's collective bonfire with the force of an authoritarian Grand National winner. His stable lads, Whitty and Vallance, had prepared the ground for him a day earlier,
by publishing a graph designed purely to help people get through the last of their stockpiled bog roll. With the proviso that it "wasn't a prediction", they then proceeded to tell the nation that 49,000 people a day could be getting the dreaded 'rona by mid-October, if we didn't do something drastic. Lo and behold, a day later something drastic has been done.
Comment: RT reports on the UK's Foreign Secretary comments that the UK is not following the example of Sweden. Why not? He doesn't say. Which is all the more bizarre, and damning, because it has been a resounding success and is now looking at herd
immunity with minimal damage to its economy:
During an interview on BBC radio on Wednesday, the minister was asked if Britain was now taking an approach similar to that of the Scandinavian country in its handling of the coronavirus crisis. "I don't accept that characterization," Raab said.
The 'Swedish approach' is characterized by avoiding a lockdown and, instead, emphasizing social distancing and hygiene. That country's health authorities have tried, if not to completely eradicate a disease, to at least slow the spread of the virus.
Commenting on the possibility of a new national lockdown, Raab told Sky News: "That is what we want to avoid." In another interview, with LBC radio, he said: "What we don't want is to have to take even more severe measures as we go through Christmas."
At the same time, Scotland's semi-autonomous government is taking more stringent measures, including banning any socializing between households.
"I've made a judgment that we are again at a tipping point with Covid, and I'm looking at data that alarms me, frankly," Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on ITV. She added, citing her scientific advisers, that the package announced by Johnson would be insufficient to bring down the rate of transmission.
Meanwhile the very (tenuous) social fabric of the UK is also being torn apart, much to the delight of some of the UK's MPs:
UK's coronavirus snitch hotline swamped with so many reports senior police staff forced to answer calls
Comment: RT reports on the UK's Foreign Secretary comments that the UK is not following the example of Sweden. Why not? He doesn't say. Which is all the more bizarre, and damning, because it has been a resounding success and is now looking at herd immunity with minimal damage to its economy: Meanwhile the very (tenuous) social fabric of the UK is also being torn apart, much to the delight of some of the UK's MPs: UK's coronavirus snitch hotline swamped with so many reports senior police staff forced to answer calls