Disparate society is revealed in Covid crisis VIEWPOINTS Police need clear laws
Viewpoints, M.E.N, Mitchell Henry House, Hollinwood Avenue, Oldham, OL9 8EF viewpoints@men-news.co.uk
REPORTS of parents being pressured to claim ‘key worker’ status leading to schools having many more children in are worrying. But who is a ‘key worker’?
Our son in Yorkshire, a selfemployed stove fitter who frequently employs a couple of friends was contacted by his daughter’s school with an offer of a place.
By and large his customers won’t die if he doesn’t install a stove and he could sweep chimneys (annually important to avoid chimney fires) in the evening. His wife is working from home for a transnational and we are the “childcare bubble”. Who should be doing the childcare?
Many may feel it’s ridiculous to classify as that ‘vulnerable children’ those without laptop or good internet connection, but if they aren’t to drop behind in a digital divide and be permanently an underclass the government’s failure to deliver on this promise has to be picked up by someone.
As the situation drags on the disparate nature of our society becomes more apparent. The poor gamble with their health and livelihoods, or are pressured into situations by fear of unemployment. Meanwhile the monied and irresponsible can afford to flout common decency with their antisocial selfishness.
And the media continue to depict the glamorous jetting off whilst ‘elite sportsmen’ (should that read ‘corporations’?) continue their business, despite the obvious dangers they bring, and indeed suffer.
Indeed, what useful purpose do the Prime Minister’s frequent photo-opportunities play?
Exceptionalism, as manifested months ago by Dominic Cummings, breeds an ‘everybody’s got to do it- except me’ outlook.
Global Citizen’s recent news the UK’s six wealthiest people have as much money and assets as the country’s poorest 13 million people put together cannot but call into question ideas of “worth” and values.
When we look internationally the situation is no better.
As the old song says: “It’s the same the whole world over...”
V. Mittelweg, Withington
POLICE and the public should be aware that getting tough on Covid19 rule-breaches is easier said than done.
During the pandemic over 50 complex emergency coronavirus regulations have been passed and at times its contents have conflicted with Government Guidance and announcements.
Take the example of exercise, one of the many legal exceptions to the nationwide England stay at home order.
Nowhere in this ‘lockdown’ regulation does it say a person must say within a particular distance from their home to exercise, or what type of activity constitutes exercise (yoga or walking), or what time of day it can be done or whether one can take a drink or not while breathing the open air.
And yet the Government Guidance and announcements repeatedly mention the term ‘local’ when it comes to exercise.
This has clearly confused some police and members of the public as to what the law is and is not when it comes to questions about the lawfulness of exercise and outdoor activity. The Government has had over ten months to introduce clarity, for instance a legal distance limit from a person’s home when it comes to exercise. They have not.
It’s no surprise that the reported exercise of seven miles from the Prime Minister’s home has been reportedly and correctly defended as not a Covid-19 breach or Derbyshire Police now accepting they made a mistake by issuing two women with fixed penalty notices when they were exercising five miles from their home.
Nasir Hafezi Solicitor and Founder of Community Legal Education – YouTube channel, Heaton Mersey