YESTERDAY MPs flunked their opportunity to ditch the dictatorial Coronavirus Act, enacted ‘in a sort of mesmerised trance, without a vote, half a year ago’, as Peter Hitchens said at the weekend.
There was some sign of hope in the last week that some members might vote down its renewal. But in the event the hyped-up rebellion led by Sir Graham Brady settled for an amendment to the renewal of the Act to secure their vote for it. This was that there should be prior parliamentary scrutiny of major national coronavirus regulations.
So that was it, and this dreadful Act, which grants potentially dangerous powers which include detaining some persons indefinitely, taking biological samples, and giving directions about dead bodies; powers which last up to two years with six-monthly reviews, plus lockdown powers that can prevent protests against such measures, sailed through. It is there for another six months before it can be reviewed again by Parliament. During which time we continue to be curfewed, locked down, denied normal human contact and threatened with fines, arrests and even the troops if we do not comply. For a virus whose danger has been highly exaggerated and regarding the ‘control’ of which there is no evidence these measures work. This is what the cowardly bunch of jobsworth MPs in Parliament have allowed.
Sir Graham Brady achieved little. No amendment even. A sort of a promise of a vote or a scrutiny opportunity for MPs before any future national measures are brought in. Are not MPs bothered that what should be their fundamental parliamentary right needed to be written in, in this limited way or that they need to extract such a promise?
Are they not worried too, apart from the little matter of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, that they will have no say over the many local lockdowns which have affected many millions of people that trigger-happy Hancock keeps imposing and no doubt will continue to? The last came only two days ago when several million in the North East had yet more intrusive regulations inflicted on them, with devastating effects on their lives and the economy.
If you have already written to your MP to protest against this despotic Act, then write again. If you haven’t yet, then get on that email. Letters from the public may have pressured some MPs this far and it needs stepping up. Be ‘polite, brief and acid’, Peter Hitchens has advised. ‘Say you have noticed that MPs have ceased to do the job for which they are paid more than £80,000 a year. They are not representing you. They have let hundreds of thousands of jobs be destroyed without a squeak of protest. They are not holding the Government to account. Ask if they think that people who do not do their jobs should continue to be employed on large salaries. Remind them that they can be removed at the next election. Leave it at that.’
Write to the Speaker too, to keep him on track. Sir Lindsay Hoyle has at least delivered a sharp rebuke to ministers for using emergency powers in a ‘totally unsatisfactory’ manner and failing to give MPs sufficient time for scrutiny:
‘All too often, important statutory instruments have been published a matter of hours before they come into force and some explanations as to why important measures have come into effect before they can be laid before this House have been unconvincing and show a total disregard for the House,’ he said.
Indeed. Hundreds of them and most from a different Act – the 1984 Public Health Act. This needs challenging too.
Readers can take their lead from 18-year-old Gilbert Jackson, who has written to his MP to tell him what he thinks of the way the Government is trashing his youth and education and why the Coronavirus Act needs to be repealed in full.
He is right. Since MPs have not heeded this advice to date, it is ever more important that as many people as possible sign this petition to Repeal the Coronavirus Act. You can find it here.
Please do. And alert your MP that you have. It needs far more signatures. Please share it as widely as possible.
If you are in any doubt about the impact on the next generation, I suggest you read Gilbert Jackson’s letter as first published on Lockdown Sceptics here. It should persuade you.
I did not think I would have to be writing to my MP at the age of 18, but I feel compelled to do so as my civic duty. The restrictions are becoming increasingly absurd and restrictive yet again, with no evidence whatsoever that they are proportionate or necessary. They are taking an unjustified toll on the mental and physical health of the entire country, and they have to end now. This is why I am urging you to vote against the renewal of the coronavirus emergency powers on Wednesday September 30. Emergency powers are not justified for one day longer, and certainly not for two more years.
I would first like to make you aware of the damage that lockdown and continuing restrictions has had on my life. I did not see friends for three months from March, which significantly harmed my mental health, and I still haven’t seen some. I was meant to be in university now, however I realised when I arrived that it was simply not what university should be. Masks everywhere, online teaching, threats of expulsion for partying, all for students who have a greater chance of being struck by lightning than killed by Covid. This is proved from the US: 48,000 positive tests in students so far, two hospitalisations and zero deaths. 305 people under 60 have died with Covid without pre-existing conditions here in the UK, in a population of 68million.
Do you remember the initial three-week lockdown to protect the NHS, flatten the curve and save lives? I was on board with that as was almost the whole country as it made sense due to the catastrophic predictions of hospitals being overrun. The three weeks ended, deaths had fallen dramatically, so had infections, and it was clear we were past the peak and hospitals had been nowhere near being overrun. Nightingale hospitals weren’t even needed (and are now being decommissioned at eye-watering cost). Yet we were then told we needed to stay indoors for an additional 12 weeks. A big ask, but acceptable, we thought. Six months on from that and we are being told to expect an additional six months of restrictions . . .
How can it be such a deadly disease that you need to be tested to know if you have it? The real data we have (not Imperial College’s imagined model outputs) suggests that age isn’t even the main risk factor, the presence of other serious medical conditions is (which do of course correlate with age). 95 per cent of deaths had at least one co-morbidity, and the average age of death is over 80. These are official figures from the ONS freely available to everyone. Also, the ONS figures have plainly shown that the pandemic has been over since May. Deaths have continued to trend downwards, now accounting for 1 per cent of all weekly deaths. The data shows no spikes for any protests or mass gatherings that were talked up into a frenzy in the news. The Government, scientists on SAGE, at Imperial College London and elsewhere seem entirely ignorant of the real world data which time and again is not fitting with their models.
The smearing by the media and politicians of those who have sought to look at the data themselves and come to different conclusions from the Government scientists as conspiracy theorists has been despicable. Heavy-handed treatment of lockdown protesters is entirely unjust when they are simply standing up for basic freedoms which are now being withheld for an indeterminate length of time by the Government who give no indication of wanting to restore them any time soon.
This is why the coronavirus emergency powers need to be revoked in full, rather than the amendment proposed by Sir Graham Brady. With Parliament appearing almost entirely supportive of suppression regardless of cost until a vaccine, which will likely not come for years or be as effective as people profess, I simply do not trust that the amendment will have much of an effect in stopping the immense harm being done to the British public. Life can be normal again. It is only the irrational fear promoted as a policy of Government that is preventing it.
I urge you to vote against the renewal of the Act, and that you and your colleagues look at all the available evidence and listen to all the viewpoints of eminent scientists such as Professor Carl Heneghan and Professor Sunetra Gupta. It is time to hold the Government to account for their arrogance, lies, and the vast amount of damage they are doing to the economy, livelihoods and mental and physical health.
