Mixed messages on judgment day
ICANNOT believe how infantilised so many of the British people have become, wanting the Government to tell them what to do or not do and wanting ministers to take decisions for them as if they are children and Boris the grown-up.The Prime Minister at last said the welcome words that we are going to be free to make our own judgments and to use our own common sense, which is what I have done throughout the entire pandemic as far as I was able.
He then used the very example which I used on this page a couple of weeks ago: that there is a difference between a crowded tube in the rush hour and an all but empty railway carriage.
From the wail that has gone up about “confusion” and “mixed messages” you would think that the most terrifying prospect on earth was taking responsibility for our own conduct when that should be the very essence of a free people.
However, those of us who are quite happy to be asked to use our own savvy now face the prospect of some organisations second-guessing the law and enforcing their own rules, as I found when I was asked to a funeral which is to be held on July 19, freedom day itself.
SO WE would be able to sing, discard our masks and the widower could ask as many of the deceased’s family and friends as he liked? Nope. The RC Diocese of Clifton has decided it will ignore the law and phase in changes according to its own timelines. So no liberation for worshippers on July 19. The Church Militant has become the church mouse. None but a boor would cause a fuss at a funeral, so I will grudgingly comply but I will react very differently in other similar situations.
Yet, with a bit of imagination both the timid and the normal-livers can be accommodated. Shops for instance can have special times when everybody is asked to wear a mask. It does not have to be all or nothing.
HAD I been in the Lords, I would now be leaving. Not only is it oversized and undertalented but now gripped by woke dogma with the bullying requirement that every peer must take a course on “valuing everyone” or face loss of access to Lords’ facilities. It tells you all you need to know about the quality of member that only three have rebelled.