Fears of 'widespread disobedience' of lockdown if protests allowed - UK Foreign Sec

RT
Tue, 16 Mar 2021 09:21 UTC

© REUTERS/Henry Nicholls

FILE PHOTO: Police officers cross Westminster Bridge during a protest, following the kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard, in London, Britain

The foreign secretary has warned that making exceptions to Covid-induced lockdown restrictions for protest movements could lead to further 'disobedience' and rule breaking, as critics question police at Sarah Everard vigil.

Speaking on Tuesday, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said there was an "inherently difficult challenge" in balancing people's desire to protest and share their grievances with the need to control the pandemic.

"The thorny issue is how we allow peaceful protest expressing our concern with something as terrible as the Sarah Everard case with also the public concern as we come through this vicious and deadly pandemic," Raab told Sky News.

"So that's the very fine line we've got to navigate," the foreign secretary said, as he claimed that the police had largely been "sensitive" in their handling of the pandemic and lockdown rule breakers.

Comment: Drones heckling people on country walks, Christmas gatherings broken up, gyms raided, Nurses protesting for pay rises fined £10,000 - the list goes on - what sensitive handling is he referring to? Why have at least one-third of coronavirus related fines been dropped because they were deemed to be unlawful?

"If we made exceptions for one thing or another, however compelling it is, we would start to see widespread disobedience with the rules and then what would that mean?" he explained.

Comment: If the threat of the virus was so severe, surely people would voluntarily cooperate? As it is, people either see through the government propaganda, or simply want to get back to their normal lives regardless of any spectre of a virus that seems to them to be less harmful than the lockdowns.

London police have come under fire as videos were posted online showing demonstrators and mourners clashing with officers on Saturday evening at a banned vigil for murdered Londoner Sarah Everard. Police declared the protest "unsafe" and called on those gathered to disperse. Several women were arrested, including at least four who were standing on the edge of a bandstand in Clapham Common.

There were more protests on Monday as people gathered in Westminster to oppose the Government's Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. Four arrests were made in total, three for alleged breaches of Covid lockdown laws and a fourth for assaulting an emergency worker.

A smaller group of people have gathered on Tuesday morning, blocking traffic along Westminster Bridge. Coronavirus restrictions currently ban large outdoor gatherings.

Comment: Perhaps some of those in power are aware that, after nearly a year of harsh lockdown restrictions, people are liable to seek out some outlet to release the tension that has built up? History and psychology predict protests and riots after lockdowns

RT reports that Irish ministers are calling for people to refrain from drinking alcohol during St Patrick's Day celebrations.

One wonders just what is it with politicians' obsession with alcohol consumption at the moment? Is it alcohol itself or is it just ponerized politicians lust for power and control? Both?

Irish government ministers are warning would-be St Patrick's Day revelers that they should use water, not booze, as their tipple of choice when celebrating the national holiday. And if they really want to be patriotic in the pandemic, better still to stay home while toasting Ireland's patron saint.

It's likely that Irish politicians haven't and won't forfeit an alcoholic drink: Irish ministers resign after violating coronavirus rules at golf dinner - day after signing lockdown legislation

© Reuters /Clodagh Kilcoyne

FILE PHOTO: St. Patrick's Day celebrations in Dublin before Covid.

Speaking on Irish radio on the eve of the holiday, Minister of State Patrick O'Donovan urged people to "drown the shamrock with water" this year. Health officials fear alcohol consumption will lead to a breakdown in social distancing and more people gathering in larger groups, increasing the spread of the virus.

People also tend to be less anxious, talk more openly and for longer periods when they're having an alcoholic drink; one can imagine that certain pathological politicians would prefer to avoid this.

The minister also criticized the fact that sales of alcohol in shops and supermarkets - Ireland's pubs have been shut for most of the past year due to Covid-19 restrictions - had not been curtailed in the lead-up to the March 17 holiday, or during lockdown periods in general.

The solution to that would be to let pubs open, but, instead, the minister appears to be warming up to a South Africa style total ban on alcohol sales.

"We didn't deal with it as a country, and I'm very critical of the way in which we didn't do this," O'Donovan said. "It was a massive failure because we didn't deal with it before Christmas and I think we paid a very dear price for it."

On December 13, Ireland recorded the lowest virus rates in Europe. A month later, following a relaxation of lockdown rules over Christmas, it recorded the highest number of confirmed cases per million of population anywhere.

Ireland has recorded over 227,000 coronavirus cases over the past year and 4,534 Covid-related deaths. Last year's St. Patrick's Day celebrations were canceled as people were told to practice social distancing and not to gather in big groups, and Ireland entered its first strict lockdown two weeks later.

O'Donovan's sentiments were echoed by Ireland's higher education minister, Simon Harris, who served as health minister for the first months of the pandemic.

"What I would suggest tomorrow - the most patriotic thing people can actually do in terms of our national battle against Covid-19 - is stick to the public health advice," Harris said, adding the government wants to be able to issue a roadmap out of lockdown restrictions in the next two weeks.

For weeks now governments throughout the EU have been leading the public on with promises of a 'road map' out of lockdown, but now, lockdowns are yet again being reimposed in a suspiciously coordinated fashion, amidst the experimental mass vaccination campaigns, over claims of a 'third wave':

• Covid cases plummet WITHOUT lockdown or mass vaccination program in South Africa
• Italy reimposes severe lockdown restrictions over half of the country
• Germany may enforce ANOTHER lockdown amid claims of a 'third wave'
• Planet in protest: BLM in Belgium, pro-freedom marchers in the Hague, currency clashes in Lebanon, Argentina's president mobbed, 39 people killed in Myanmar riots

Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal #26: Globalization vs Nationalism - The Hidden Causes of The Yellow Vest Protests in France