Where has the British love of liberty gone?
Protests against lockdown are raging in other nations. In the UK, people want even tougher restrictions
What happened to the British people’s bulldog spirit, our instinctive libertarianism? Judging from how we’ve reacted to the lockdown, we’ve become a nation of authoritarians. Far from rebelling against our liberties being removed, most people are demanding the authorities impose even more draconian measures.
According to an opinion poll published earlier this week, only six per cent of people think the current restrictions are “too severe”, while 44 per cent think they’re “not severe enough”. This is in spite of the fact that 84 per cent believe they’ll face years of economic hardship as a result of an extended lockdown.
Contrast this with the reaction in Germany, where a comparable lockdown has been imposed. According to popular mythology, the Germans are pinched and hidebound rule-followers, whereas the British are Rabelaisian freedom lovers. Turns out, that’s not true. Forty four per cent of Germans are opposed to more severe measures, while 32 per cent want the existing ones to be scaled back.
In Berlin, hundreds of people took part in an anti-lockdown protest earlier this week – and we’ve seen similar demonstrations in Belgium and across the United States. In Michigan, even the police have joined the rebels, with local sheriffs issuing a statement saying they would not enforce the governor’s stay-at-home orders.
If only our own police showed the same reluctance to do the bidding of their political masters. Instead, they’ve embraced their new powers and, in some cases, abused them. They’ve sent drones after walkers in the Peak District, arrested people for sunbathing in public parks and set up “hotlines” so wannabe members of the Stasi can dob in their fellow citizens.
You’d expect journalists to baulk at this assault on our liberties, particularly with politicians telling them they should stop questioning the Government’s handling of the crisis. But, with a few honourable exceptions, many have become zealous lockdown enthusiasts, only criticising the Government for not having placed the British people under house arrest sooner. Those who do ask questions about whether the Government has a strategy for exiting lockdown, meanwhile, are attacked for undermining the national effort.
I discovered just how unpopular any dissent from the official line is when I wrote an article suggesting the lockdown should be scaled back. I was rounded on, accused of being “irresponsible”.
I was so shocked by this reaction, I’ve set up a website called Lockdown Sceptics where dissenters can gather to share their reservations. I’ve been amazed by the calibre of the contributors. For instance, I was sent a paper by Mikko Paunio, a key scientific adviser to the Finnish government, estimating that the infection fatality rate of Covid-19 is around 0.13 per cent – roughly the same as seasonal flu. In spite of his impeccable credentials, as well as the robust evidence he presents, the paper was rejected by various academic journals for being too controversial.
How can we account for this change in our national character? According to Jonathan Sumption, the former Supreme Court judge, we’ve been frightened into it. “When human societies lose their freedom, it’s not usually because tyrants have taken it away. It’s usually because people willingly surrender their freedom in return for protection against some external threat.”
No doubt there’s some truth in this, but it doesn’t explain why there’s more support in Britain for limiting our freedom than anywhere else in Europe. It’s particularly mystifying when you consider that countries that have avoided hard lockdowns have recorded fewer deaths per million – Japan (1.2 coronavirus deaths per million), South Korea (4.3), Singapore (1.8) and Taiwan (0.3) – than those that have imposed the most severe restrictions – Spain (397.6), Italy (358.2), France (256.3) and the UK (193.5).
If we’re worried about the “external threat”, as Lord Sumption claims, why not urge our Government to follow the more laissez-faire approach of the Swedish authorities? Schools, bars and restaurants are still open there, and gatherings of up to 50 people are permitted, but deaths per million in Sweden (118) are lower than in the UK.
Perhaps the answer is that we’re more easily frightened than our European neighbours. It’s tempting to think the feminisation of British culture has left us bereft of manly virtues. We have become men without chests, to use CS Lewis’s phrase. An alternative explanation is that our sense of ourselves as a nation of indomitable warriors has always been vainglorious nonsense. We’ve been able to keep this myth alive because the last successful invasion of Britain was in 1066, but if Hitler hadn’t paused at Dunkirk perhaps we would have fared no better than other conquered European peoples.
But, I prefer to think it’s a temporary aberration and we will eventually recover our love of freedom. In the meantime, it’s up to the minority of us who still hold fast to Magna Carta to keep the flame of liberty alive.
follow Toby Young on Twitter @toadmeister; read more at telegraph.co.uk/opinion