Lockdown sceptic Sir Desmond Swayne MP predicted that unless the government devises an exit strategy for coronavirus restrictions, Britons will “rise up” and demand the laws be changed.
“I think it comes down to this: as hospital admissions decline with the progress of vaccination, the notion that ordinary people are going to be prepared to tolerate going on living like troglodytes in this rediculous way is absurd,” Sir Desmond told talkRADIO host Julia Hartley-Brewer on Friday.
“We were told… that [lockdown] was protecting the NHS [National Health Service] and reducing hospital admissions. As they reduce, the burden of lockdown becomes intolerable,” Sir Desmond said, adding that the government continues to move the goalposts of what influences lockdown.
“The goalposts keep moving,” he said. “The goalpost has to be the NHS coping with an acceptable number of hospital admissions.”
The MP for New Forest West said that eventually, unless the government commits to a fix exit strategy, Britons will demand the lockdown laws be changed.
“At some stage, people have got to rise up and ‘bring it down’, as they say in the United States, but the reality is, I’m deeply sceptical about this great belief that everyone is in favour of lockdown and we need tougher restrictions and are happy for it to go on. This is madness,” said the Iraq War veteran.
The government has indeed moved the goalposts several times in the past ten months, notably turning what first was sold as a three-week lockdown starting in March 2020 to “stop the spread” and prepare NHS hospitals for high numbers of coronavirus cases into several months of multiple lockdowns and other restrictions on free assembly, movement, and business.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson had also pledged not to cancel Christmas, granting Britons a five-day break from restrictions — organised in tiers one to three — to spend time with loved ones, only to invent another restrictions tier — Tier 4 — and cancel family holiday plans for millions of Britons in the south-east.
This year, the prime minister announced a third lockdown, declining to give an end-date to the period of severe restrictions which could, according to the legislation, last until March 31st. Government ministers and the premier himself have either said it was too early to tell when lockdown would end or gave predictions ranging from mid-February to late Spring, early Summer.
While Mr Swayne remains sceptical that Britons would accept continuing to live under lockdown without good reason, the polls would suggest otherwise.
Consistently, surveys have revealed that Britons remain fearful of leaving their homes, blaming each other for rising numbers. They have also demanded harsher police action on rule-breakers, and supported the erosion of privacy or civil liberties as well as the growth of the police state in the name of tracking the spread of the infection.
Citizens are also open to informing on each other over perceived infractions of the lockdown laws.
Anecdotal evidence also suggests that some are who will shame people in the street for not wearing a mask, despite there being no legal requirement to cover one’s face when out in the open.
Writing in The Telegraph on Friday, Judith Woods described being a victim of “mask rage” when, while walking her dog, a woman verbally abused her for not covering up. Ms Woods wrote:
“Go home!” yelled the woman. I was so clueless I whipped round to see which malfeasant she was addressing. It turned out to be me.
I was walking along a residential road, returning from my daily exercise-cum-dog walk, when the unsettling encounter occurred.
“If you refuse to protect others, you have no right to leave the house,” the masked woman asserted. “Wear. A. Mask.”
On Friday, London’s Labour mayor Sadiq Khan has called for mask-wearing to be made mandatory in busy outdoor settings.