Unecessary, antisocial rules cause fear and anger

OTHERS have remarked on how the Covid-19 situation has brought out the best in some people. Unfortunately, it has also caused some people to behave badly towards their customers. People who are not bad people. People who were nice and friendly, now seem much less friendly, and rather officious.

I go to a building society where I have savings. I am told to wait outside. When I am eventually admitted, I am ordered to stand on a spot and stay there. A bit like a naughty infant might be at a primary school.

When I go to the supermarket, a store guard takes issue with me for not going around the one-way system. Even though no one is waiting for service and the one item that I want is next to the checkout. He wants me to walk to the far end of the store and back again, to buy my item. Rules are rules.

It is no longer any pleasure at all to go for a drink in a pub. It is not fear of a virus that keeps me, and others, out of pubs. It is unnecessary, antisocial rules.

None of the ordinary people, working in ridiculous circumstances, are to blame for this situation. Our government is.

Laws are made by ministerial decree. No parliamentary debate or scrutiny. Opposition parties and government backbenchers say nothing against this.

Politicians, who a short while ago, wanted Boris Johnson jailed for proroguing parliament, now say nothing about him introducing non-democratic government.

But why has everyone become less friendly? Could it be because we are all wearing masks? Masks dehumanise people. Masks are associated with deceit and criminality. We might say of someone untrustworthy, that, metaphorically, he wears a mask. Masks are an obstacle to communication. They cause confusion, fear and anger.

Young children and animals are bewildered by masks. Imagine a baby being born into this scenario. What about people being looked after by carers wearing masks. This cannot be very comforting.

In the recent past, if someone had entered a bank with a mask on, they would have been told to take it off. Now they are compelled to wear one. The world has gone mad.