The coronavirus-era phenomenon of weekly public applause for medical workers has taken a less positive turn, as opponents of Britain’s Conservative government have called on followers to indulge in a public shaming ceremony.
Plans to give opponents of the government a chance to vent their frustration in a united public show of “hate” — an emotion invoked by many in their writings about the plan online — has metastasised on social media, apparently in response to the prime minister’s decision to stand by the pro-Brexit special adviser Dominic Cummings.
Mr Cummings acting as a flashpoint for anti-government “hate” underlines the way attitudes towards the 2016 Brexit referendum still acts as the greatest faultline in British politics — even during coronavirus. As a guarantor within the government for Brexit being delivered as promised — and having only recently thwarted a plan to delay Brexit again, cooked up while he and Mr Johnson were incapacitated with the virus — Mr Cummings has made himself plenty of enemies.
Twitter blue-tick anti-Brexit musician-comedian Vikki Stone — cited by local news media as instrumental in setting up the idea of launching a ‘Boo for Boris’ — told the Derby Telegraph that the fact Mr Cummings was not resigning was “beyond what is acceptable”.
Calling the planned nationwide expression of hate “cathartic”, Stone said opponents of the government should tell “those in power that we are angry”.
The concept since been shared or promoted by such luminaries as The Guardian‘s Owen Jones, and sometimes of the BBC John Sweeney.
Just in case the nature of the present feeling against the prime minister and his adviser Dominic Cummings was not clear enough, the Orwellian mood music was underlined Saturday when an enormous television screen was parked outside Cummings’ house. Footage from journalists camped outside the property hoping for a glimpse of the special adviser showed part of the video was a close up on the prime minister’s face discussing the lockdown.
The suggestion of a coordinated booing follows nine weeks of applause for medical staff in the United Kingdom. What started out as a voluntary expression of support for carers quickly took on more authoritarian tones in some neighbourhoods, however, with one notable incident reflecting the leverage of social shame to punish individuals not turning out to applaud. As Breitbart London reported in April, a hard-worked British mother found herself too tired to take part and was subsequently named and shamed by an online mob.
Explaining she had had a “rough night” with her child, the woman said at the time of her community turning against her: “I was mortified. The post said everyone else turned out and I showed the street up and if I can’t spend a minute showing my appreciation I don’t deserve to use the NHS if I or my family get ill… It’s really disturbing how quickly people are ready to turn on each other and ‘report’ each other.”
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