Post by Vicky AyechPeople obeyed minute instructions and were
encouraged to report those who didn't.
That approach is deeply disturbing to me. But the last time I said
that I crossed a line.
We have been living in a police state for some time. What COVID-19 has
done is made it plain that we are living in a police state.
No we aren't.
We live in a state in which the police may have more powers to interfere
with citizens' behaviour than you may like. That is not the same thing
as a police state, which is a totalitarian state controlled by a
political police force that secretly supervises the citizens' activities
and systematically acts to enforce the political will of the government.
Whatever the flaws of our political system and of our police force,
the UK cannot be truthfully described in such terms.
I do have concerns about erosion of civil liberties, but personally I
think it is reasonable at the moment to enforce measures to control
Covid-19, provided that those measures are lawfully introduced and
lawfully enforced, and that the enforcement is proportional to any
non-compliance. You may well disagree, and that's a legitimate point of
view. However, it is simply untrue to say that we have been living in a
police state for some time.
--
Sid
(Make sure Matron is away when you reply)