New restrictions are worse than a second lockdown. They are the shape of the ‘New Normal’

Boris Johnson’s new ‘rule of six’ restrictions on public and private gatherings demonstrate that Britain is perilously close to abandoning the very values that undergird its democratic liberties.

All societies which value liberty must place necessary restrictions on individual and group freedoms. Liberty is never absolute. However, a free society is one that places freedom at the heart of its values, institutions and decision-making infrastructure. Boris Johnson’s new ‘rule of six’ restrictions on public and private gatherings of over six people demonstrate that Britain is perilously close to abandoning the very values that undergird its democratic liberties.

All freedoms have their limits. In the area of free speech, even most absolutists recognise there is a difference between the right to voice a political or religious view and the potential damage of defaming the reputation of fellow citizens. In freedom of expression, there are certain rare instances where someone’s personal right to freely be who they are must be limited if their actions are deemed to cause damage or harassment to another person or their property. Freedom of Information is a much-prized modern value, but in times of war it is not difficult to understand why it must be restricted.

Health and public safety are also issues that come into friction with absolute unguarded freedom. Much of the reasoning behind the coronavirus lockdown depends on the view that given the dangers posed by a new virus in the community, normal rules cannot apply. Even if this was the rigidly applied rule in late March of this year, it is difficult to understand why the safety-versus-freedom algorithm has not been adjusted given that we now know more about how to treat Covid-19, deaths are significantly down on the peak and even the recent spread of cases can largely be explained away.

In a reassuringly calm and insightful article for BBC News, science writers Rachel Shraer and Nick Triggle explain why news reports of massive jumps in recorded cases of coronavirus can be understood as a result of various factors, none of which are a cause for severe alarm. Not only do Shraer and Triggle confirm that increased testing a is a big reason for the apparent surge in cases, they also point out that the cases recorded at the peak of the virus in April were massively underestimated.

They say that at the peak of the virus ‘the UK was only largely able to test hospital patients. There was limited testing capacity.

‘This targeted testing meant infections in the community were completely missed, whereas now we have mass testing in the community. It means that if we compare numbers now to numbers during the peak, we are essentially comparing apples with pears.’

It was only in May, we are told, that mass testing in the community was rolled out, and some scientists estimate that at the height of the pandemic there would have been up to 100,000 cases a day in the UK.

Articles like that by Shraer and Triggle put the supposed new scare in perspective. Can we really call this new rise in cases an emergency? Do our concerns about this rise really amount to an airtight case for furthering suspensions on civic rights? At the very least, the decisions to be made here cannot be done on the basis of some hard and fast binary between safety and liberty.

However, sharing even neutral news stories like this online is likely to get you barked at by Piers Morgan and his army of dogmatic misery-pedlers. Unless you continue to treat the threat of Covid-19 as an absolute constant that can never vary unless it has disappeared from the cosmos entirely, you will be blamed for effectively justifying the murder of elderly people.

The decision before us, according to these lockdown-zealots, is simple. You’re either for clamping down on liberties or you are a callous, selfish hedonist that only cares about your own health and private license.

The intentions of the government are clear when we see the manner in which they are issuing these draconian diktats. As with the fines awarded to Piers Corbyn, these new regulations are brought in by statutory instrument, rather than as ordinary laws which are to be debated and voted on by parliament. In fact, the Health Secretary Matt Hancock and the Prime Minister failed to alert fellow MPs to the new restrictions being planned during a Commons meeting on Tuesday, only to announce them directly to the press hours later.

Thankfully, Speaker Lindsay Hoyle stood up to Matt Hancock, reminding him of his duty of transparency and the sovereignty of parliament. He has threatened the Health Secretary with daily Urgent Questions in the Commons and to ‘run the house ragged’ as a response to Matt Hancock’s pious contempt for the ordinary political procedures of the land.

The Prime Minister insists this is not a new lockdown. In truth, it is worse than a second lockdown. It is the shape of the New Normal. This new move could amount to the most severe impingement on individual freedom we have had so far, given that the fines of £100 we each face for violating the restrictions are more likely to be handed out than similar fines have been in previous months.

Recent curbs on the right to protest and the £10,000 fines given to anti-lockdown campaigner Piers Corbyn should demonstrate beyond doubt that the government and establishment as a whole is intent on doubling-down on its assault on Britain’s constitution, rather than easing off.

Covid Marshalls, spot fines, enforced tracing amounting invasive surveillance and the complete annihilation of the organic centres of citizen power are going to be part of the atmosphere of the new hellish reality of modern Britain. We may even be subject to a soul-crushing, economy-destroying curfew. At least during lockdown we were free within our own private castles, now we are going to be forced back out into the world, but with none of the incentives that make public life worthwhile, and completely on the terms of our predatory and sinister health minister Matt Hancock.

With restrictions on assembly, prohibitive rules on going to pubs, cinemas and public buildings, the government is slowly taking over our personal lives, effectively killing Britain’s centuries old implicitly accepted commitment to individual liberty.