Taking liberties with the public | thearticle

Funny how governments champion personal responsibility when it suits them but undermine it when our individual freedoms become inconvenient or threaten their grip on power.  Take Covid and

judicial reviews. Not, on the face of it, issues that are obviously linked. And yet how these are handled affects every one of us, our lives and our well-being.  They represent, if you like,

the intersection between individual liberty and the public good. Is wearing a mask in a crowded space an affront to personal liberty? Or is it an act of consideration towards the safety of

others?  Are we all in this together? Or is it every man and woman for themselves? Such questions matter because they define who we are.  Boris Johnson trumpeted “freedom day” on 19 July.

Virtually all Covid restrictions were lifted. Responsibility for safeguarding the health of the nation was largely handed back to its citizens – to us, to you and me, to fit young

30-somethings and vulnerable pensioners alike.   The vaccine, said the Prime Minister, was going to see us through another winter — despite soaring infections, climbing death rates and a

health service flashing red and braced for another crisis. That’s still the line. Travel around England and you see a country that seems to think the pandemic is over. Mask-wearing is now

the exception. Social distancing almost non-existent. Football stadiums are packed with roaring, mask-less fans acting like giant Covid aerosols. Shops, supermarkets, pubs and clubs are,

once again, incubators of the virus. Wearing a mask is for weaklings. It’s un-British. It’s embarrassing.   Johnson’s boosterism has sprinkled fairy dust over the nation, wiping the

Government’s lethal incompetence in the early months of the pandemic from our consciousness. It’s working.  In its place we see a kind of throw-caution-to-the-wind fatalism, boosted by a

dollop of the Dunkirk spirit. Except that reaching across an elderly shopper in a crowded supermarket, mask-less, to grab some watercress, is the very opposite of the spirit that inspired

the little boats. It is not our finest hour.   New infections are hovering between 30,000-50,000 a day. The graph for infections between April 2020 and now, looks like a giant wave with two

massive peaks nine months apart. The UK’s vaccine roll-out has been a success, but is now stalling. Case numbers, hospitalisation and deaths remain much higher than other western European

countries where protective measures, such as indoor mask-wearing, remain compulsory.   So: what has this to do with judicial reviews?  David Davis, big Tory beast (not my cup of tea, but I

much admire his stand on individual liberty), touches on the paradox of a Conservative Government cutting us loose in one area but attempting to corral us in another.  Judicial review, Davis

writes in the _Guardian_, is a cornerstone of British democracy. It holds the powerful to account. Gina Miller used it to challenge the Government when it wanted to trigger Article 50

without parliamentary challenge. The poor, the sick, the disabled and the ordinary citizen use it to upend unjust decisions. Judicial review, Davis says, gives a voice to the victims of

injustice.  Not content with hobbling judicial reviews, the Government also wants to “revise” (for which read weaken) the Human Rights Act. It wishes to pass laws that inhibit the right of

peaceful protest (if they’re too noisy), while protecting state bodies from accountability.  The Freedom of Information Act, which allows citizens to find out things Whitehall wants to keep

secret, looks set to be neutered. Journalists could be prosecuted under a new Espionage Act for working with whistleblowers.  Johnson is all for the separation of powers — provided it

doesn’t encroach on his. There is more than a hint of egomania here.   This tendency to be a man of the people when it suits him, except when it doesn’t, is a characteristic of this

administration. It’s what you might call the have-your-cake-and-eat-it syndrome and it affects others around the Prime Minister. Lord Frost, the deceptively soft-spoken Brexit bulldog,

brawling with the EU to scrap the Northern Ireland Protocol, a key part of an international treaty which he solemnly negotiated. But, it seems, not too solemnly.   Sajid Javid, the Health

Secretary, grotesquely threatening to name and shame overworked GPs who, quite sensibly, want the freedom to triage their patients into those they can support remotely and those who need

face-to-face consultations.  Even more contentiously, Javid is edging towards a “get jabbed or get out” policy for NHS and care home staff. You don’t have to agree or disagree with this to

see how it exposes the contradictions at the heart of this Government’s approach to the pandemic.  Ayn Rand, the high priestess of the libertarian Right (Javid is a fervent disciple), wrote

once  that capitalism and altruism are incompatible; they are philosophical opposites. They cannot co-exist in the same man and the same society.  This is, of course, nonsense. Capitalism,

or the free market, is the engine that drives the economy forward. Regulation, oversight, and the naughty step are the essential brakes that keep it veering off the tracks.  But the quote

does shine a light on the constant balancing act that human beings must perform between getting things done and doing it with the consent and cooperation of those around them.  It’s the

dilemma parents face as children ease into the fast lane when they become teenagers. It is the challenge that democratic governments face when trying to govern, especially in difficult

times, with the consent of the people.  It’s been a tough few years. The financial crisis – now consigned to memory but catastrophic at the time (remember when you thought your life’s

savings were going to vanish?). A decade of austerity (uncomfortable for some, ruinous for others). And now the pandemic has left us parched for good news and hope.  For now, Johnson’s

boosterish narrative is holding up, especially in parts of the country other parties can’t reach. He has devised what, on the face of it, seems like a radical, new “third way” that has

united the free-market Right-wing of his party with old Left Brexit-supporting voters who feel left behind. He has bought himself time and a license to do pretty much what he wants.  The

Government and the man are fraught with contradictions. They present a confused picture which doesn’t add up to a coherent approach. Johnson wants to be seen as a world leader on climate

change. And yet he votes down an amendment to the law to compel Britain’s water monopolies to stop pouring raw sewage in our rivers and coastline. He misjudged that one. A U-turn is on the

cards after a widespread rebellion. For now, the confusion remains largely hidden, obscured by showers of chaff. A give-away budget will help.   But, to paraphrase Abe Lincoln: You can fool

some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time. But, as sure as eggs is eggs, you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE _We are

the only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We have an important contribution to make, one that’s needed now more than ever, and we need your help to continue publishing

throughout the pandemic. So please, make a donation._