Resist the march of the muzzle zealots

HOW much more of this virus panic can we take? A large part of the country is sick of being bossed about and kept from its pleasures, and the Government is plainly afraid of an explosion if it tries to close beaches and keep people from gathering.

It is wise to be cautious. Everyone saw the way that Ministers did nothing to prevent large Left-wing demonstrations. Everyone must also have noticed that so far there’s been no evidence of the much-touted second wave, or of any spike of deaths in areas where these demonstrations took place.

Until now, the Prime Minister has distilled power out of fear. But the fear is fading. So do not be surprised if there are claims soon that ‘infections’ are rising. This is actually meaningless, as many of them will be mild or without symptoms, and the more you look for them, the more you find.

The chances are that they are way below the number of infections back in December and January, when many people may have had the virus without even knowing what they had. But nobody will ever know, because nobody was searching for those people then, or even knew how to.

Then there’s the continuing attempt to pressure us all into wearing muzzles or (as a friend of mine calls them) ‘face-nappies’. There are many interesting exemptions from the rule forcing their use on public transport, which I often mock by wearing a huge wheezy gas mask.

But the Government does not, in fact, believe they are any use. In its own documents for guidance on reopening businesses it says: ‘The evidence of the benefit of using a face covering to protect others is weak and the effect is likely to be small.’

And if you go to the hairdressers and they tell you that you must wear a muzzle, they are wrong, at least in England. The guidance says clearly there is no such requirement if the hairdresser is wearing a visor.

I think the muzzle zealots want us to adopt the mouthless, submissive look because it makes us all more used to being told what to do, however silly the instruction. If you agree to that much interference in your life, then what won’t you also do? That’s why I resist it.

I am pretty sure this is going to last for ever, now. Those of us who have studied the evidence and know the whole thing was a vast and illogical over-reaction are in a minority of about 15 per cent. The great majority still swallow the propaganda, and will soon be persuaded that the Government’s big mistake was not to shut down the country sooner.

Perhaps that will make the coming unemployment, inflation and confiscatory taxation easier to bear. But not for me.