"It's only for when you pop into Tesco's to do your weekly shop, what's your problem with that, you selfish 'right-wing' libertarian?" That's how the introduction of mandatory face-masks was sold to us in Britain last summer, by its virtue-signalling, "Look at me, I'm such a good citizen" supporters.
Masks would be temporary - restricted to shops - and as soon as the Covid threat had passed they would be dispensed with, like social distancing. Anyone who said these measures were designed to be permanent - and were part of the global elite's plan to keep the plebs muzzled up forever - was dismissed as a 'crank' and 'a conspiracy theorist'.
Well, nine months on, and where are we?
The UK government has issued a 'road map' for taking us - with the speed of a 150-year-old Galapagos Island tortoise on sleeping tablets - out of lockdown. But there's no mention of when masks and social distancing will be dispensed with.
Could that be because there's no intention of masks and social distancing ever being dispensed with? It certainly appears that way.
Since last July, we've seen the mask mandate expanded. You are now asked to wear them not just in shops, but in all indoor areas, unless exempt. Even school children have to wear them in class. That decision was supposed to be reviewed at Easter, and, guess what, the government has just extended the school mask mandate until the summer. In addition, football fans will be expected to wear masks when they're finally allowed back into grounds this spring at 'trial' events.
'Following the science'? Hardly. We shouldn't forget that in the week that masks were first introduced last summer, deaths with Covid literally reached zero.
The BBC's Health Correspondent Deborah Cohen asked the World Health Organisation if their change of advice on masks had been due to political lobbying, and they did not deny.
Why, if masks were so important in preventing transmission, weren't we told to wear them last March and April? In fact, government scientists advised us not to wear them.
Now, it seems not only must we wear them, but we need to get used to them being a permanent part of daily life in the 'New Abnormal'. In their recent paper, 'Evaluating England's Road Map out of Lockdown', published on the UK government's website, the Imperial College Covid-19 Response team state: "Whilst the impact of Test Trace Isolate, mask wearing, hand hygiene and COVID security on 'R' is difficult to quantify it will be vital to emphasise the importance of normalising and ensuring adherence to all measures even after 'full lifting' is achieved." Got that? Masks need to stay even after Boris Johnson says 'Lockdown is over'.
It's in this context that the World Economic Forum's (WEF) enthusiastic promotion of the Chinese 'smart face mask' needs to be seen. It apparently reminds users when to wash it and checks if they're wearing it properly. If too much carbon dioxide builds up inside, a phone alert reminds the wearer to catch a few breaths of fresh air. If the user forgets to put it on, the same phone app sends them a reminder to mask up.
This is not about public health, but all about making sure that measures introduced ostensibly to stop the spread of Covid-19 become permanent. Yes, once again the much-derided 'crackpot conspiracy theorists' of 2020 have been proved right.
Remember how last summer, the WEF was promoting a 'Common Pass' health passport scheme, not just for international travel but for access to domestic events too? It would never happen, we were told. That's 'David Icke stuff', was the condescending brush-off. Well, that too has come to pass - no pun intended.
To find out why all this is happening, all we have to do is to follow the money trail. All the way to Davos. What does the pro-permanent mask Imperial College have in common with the pro-permanent mask WEF? Answer: the pro-permanent mask Bill Gates.
Last month, Gates himself likened putting on a face mask to putting on a pair of trousers. "I just don't think wearing a mask is such a deep inconvenience. I mean we ask people to wear pants. You know, why was this politicised?" Back in November, he made the same comparison. "We ask you to wear pants and, you know, no American says — or very few Americans say — that that's, like, some terrible thing."
But is masking up whenever we go out really the same as putting on a pair of trousers, to use the English term?
Of course it isn't. Unless you're Batman or The Lone Ranger, or another Saturday morning cinema superhero, or indeed a bank-robber, wearing a mask in public isn't normal, and no amount of WEF-spin makes it so. But what walking about with pieces of black cloth over our mouths and noses does do, is maintain the levels of fear in the community.
If cases and deaths with Covid have plummeted to zero, but we want to make people live as if there is a permanent pandemic, to keep control over them, and to introduce 'Covid-certification' to restrict where they can and cannot go, how else can we keep Project Fear going without masks? It's the only way we'd know that these were not 'normal' times. Which is, of course, precisely why they were introduced when deaths had dwindled to very low numbers.
Smart masks? The really smart thing is to get wise to the WEF's dystopian agenda.
About the author
Neil Clark is a journalist, writer, broadcaster and blogger. His award winning blog can be found at neilclark66.blogspot.com. He tweets on politics and world affairs @NeilClark66
Comment: See also: