Police enforcing the British government’s lockdown have been trying to ban convenience stores from selling Easter eggs because they are “non-essential goods” — despite it not being at all clear that there are any rules mandating what shopkeepers can and cannot sell.
According to the BBC:
Some shops have been told by police and local councils that the chocolate eggs are considered non-essential goods.
The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) blamed “overzealous enforcement and a misreading of the rules”.
It has told shopkeepers to carry on selling a full range of goods.
“There is no government definition of which products can be sold within those stores,” ACS chief executive James Lowman observed.
“In the cases where officers have challenged retailers and shoppers in this way, it’s brought confusion, distracted retailers in the busiest weeks of their lives and increased the interactions between people at a time when the government is trying to minimise them.”
Elsewhere, overzealous police have summonsed people for the alleged offence of “going to the shops for non-essential items”.
They have also been trying to stop people taking walks on canal towpaths…
And dying a blue lake in Derbyshire’s Peak District black to make it look less appealing to day-trippers:
According to the Sun:
[Police] wrote on Facebook: “Yesterday we received reports that people were congregating at the ‘Blue Lagoon’ in Harpur Hill, Buxton.
No doubt this is due to the picturesque location and the lovely weather (for once) in Buxton. However, the location is dangerous and this type of gathering is in contravention of the current instruction of the UK Government.
“With this in mind, we have attended the location this morning and used water dye to make the water look less appealing.”
Officers have also been grilling hospital care workers on their way back from late shifts:
And stopping people from “sitting in the park” (note the misspelling of ‘guidance’).
And soliciting “hate crime” reports.
And reprimanding Stephen Kinnock MP, the son of former Labour leader Neil Kinnock, for stopping to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to his Dad.
Stephen Kinnock’s behaviour, though defended by some as reasonable defiance of excessive authoritarianism, does lay him open to charges of hypocrisy, however.
Here is what Kinnock — a Labour politician — tweeted last week: