It’s time we had our freedoms restored
As we approach the first anniversary of “Three Weeks to Flatten the Curve”; it’s vital to remind ourselves that the freedoms and liberties surrendered to the government last March, were only for a specific purpose, and for a very short period of time: To prevent NHS critical care capacity from being overwhelmed.
That objective was achieved and the NHS was never overwhelmed, and yet here we are a whole year later with our freedoms and liberties still confiscated.
When that request was made of the British people, we were unsure what we were dealing with, so everyone (including me) willingly complied.
Since then we know that even without a vaccine, Covid 19 poses little threat to all but the very old and ill, and with the vaccine it poses less of a threat than a regular flu season.
Despite this however, the government’s ‘roadmap out of lockdown’ is absurdly and agonisingly slow, with no guarantees that it will proceed as intended. There are too many provisos, and it risks any progress being snatched away at a moment’s notice.
Despite plummeting case numbers, plummeting hospital admissions, plummeting deaths and a huge vaccine rollout; Dr ‘Chicken (the sky is falling in) Whitty’ claimed recently, that if we unlock too quickly we’ll see a ‘substantial surge’ in cases, and warned there may be more lockdowns ahead in the autumn and winter. This is utter madness! People will simply not put up with it.
The rational fear that we’ll be in and out of (catastrophically damaging) lockdowns for the rest of time is utterly unacceptable.
How can people plan their lives, educations and futures? What incentive is there to start up a small business for example, or invest in anything when the government could close it down and take everything they’ve worked for away overnight?
This had never been an issue in the past; there was always the belief that if you invested in your future and worked hard, you could be successful. We need to get back that absolute certainty and confidence, or the very fabric of this nation built on the back of entrepreneurs and small businesses - will be forever destroyed.
Last autumn we were told that: “The vaccine was the gamechanger”: “The distant bugle of the scientific cavalry coming over the brow of the hill”. We were told that the roll-out of the vaccine to the over 70’s would mean that 90 per cent of those who were likely to die from Covid would be safe. (Now those over 55 have also been vaccinated that’s more like 99 per cent ).
So WHY is the vaccine suddenly not the game-changer when it was seen as such before?
The uptake and effectiveness is much better than was ever anticipated and yet is still doesn’t get us out of lockdown and the other restrictive regulations like masks and distancing. What the hell is going on?
It appears our only hope is that ministers and government push back on behalf of the people against this never-ending cycle of gloom and imprisonment by scientists, or they will keep us in this dysfunctional purgatory forever.
As I said at the start of this letter; we acquiesced to the government last March only for a specific purpose and for a very short period of time. Our liberties do not belong to the government to decide when and how to return them, they belong to us and we want them back immediately and permanently.
Helen Hims Shipham