A man in Manchester, England, was spotted taking government social distancing and mask mandates to a whole other level on Monday when he was spotted boarding a bus wearing a live snake around his face.
Presumably poking fun at the United Kingdom’s inconsistent and selectively enforced Chinese coronavirus regulations, the reptile-adorned man was photographed boarding a bus in Salford, Manchester, on September 14th.
One witness told the Manchester Evening News: “At first I thought he had a really funky mask on, then he let it crawl around the handrails. No one was really bothered on the bus but a man behind took a video.”
“It was definitely entertaining,” the witness added.
In the United Kingdom, the government has ordered that citizens wear masks on forms of public transport, such as buses, aeroplanes, trams, and trains.
The regulations also require masks in indoor shopping areas like malls and shops. However, this does not extend to the service sector, where people are allowed to gather in pubs, restaurants, and cafes without a mask.
Earlier this month, another British man, Michael Richards, exposed the vagaries of the COVID-19 rules, when he travelled on a flight from England to Tenerife without a mask. He successfully skirted the rules by eating a can of pringles for four hours, as passengers who are eating are exempt from the mask requirements.
Mr Richards told the Evening Standard that he is not an “anti-masker”, and that he carried out the experiment for “a laugh”.
The Conservative Party-led government has also come under fire for the inconsistencies in the recently imposed ‘six-person rule’ which bans people from having a gathering of more than six people in public and in private places, with those found in violation facing fines and arrest.
The regulation, which was set in place on Monday, does not prohibit the mass gatherings staged by left-wing activist groups such as Black Lives Matter or Extinction Rebellion, so long as they are “organised in compliance with COVID-19 secure guidance and subject to strict risk assessments”.
A business owner in Chichester, Michael Schneider, 57, has already come under police investigation for refusing to abide by the government’s regulations after he posted a sign banning people who are wearing what he termed the “government muzzle” from entering his cafe.
Mr Schneider, who believes the Chinese virus to be a “hoax”, told The Metro: “I’ve had the police around, I’ve had the Council round twice and they all want me to take my poster down and I’m not going to do it because it’s the truth.”
“What’s happening now, where you can’t get more than six people in one place without having the police on you, that violates Article 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” he added.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here: @KurtZindulka
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.