Banners need a course in banners ~ and the rest
Published: 19 May 2020
When I heard about the anti-lockdown demonstrations, I breathed a sigh of relief. It had been worrying me lately. Brexit had kept the professional demonstrators going for about three years, but with nothing left to rail against what were they up to now? Then along came the virus and with it lockdown, and hey presto the perfect excuse to get out there on the streets again.
I never thought of checking the YouTube videos to ascertain whether lockdown, against which the demonstrators were demonstrating, had enabled them to produce better quality banners. So often it is the case that so-called activist banners lack the professional look which could conceivably lend more credibility to the stated reason for their day out: rickety old pieces of hardboard with daubed-on slogans that don’t fit and are hard to read on film, let alone in the streets amidst all the cat-awailing and jostling, lacks kudos, don’t you think? Surely, with all this time on their hands the vociferous throng could bless us with something better than the usual substandard fare. These atrocious banners look as if they’ve been knocked up on a university campus by students who feel left out for having not lived through the classic era of great demonstrations, the 1960s, or by people who supposedly have lots of time on their hands and could perhaps have used it more sensibly by learning how to letter-space.
But who cares? The beauty of the anti-lockdown angst is that you can conveniently hang it on the human rights’ hook. BREXIT was OK on this account as well, in that the antis could accuse Brexiteers of being racist for wanting to take back control of the UK’s borders. But there is nothing quite as human rights violationist as the concept and implementation of something called ‘lockdown’, even if that something is devised for your own good. If the government had been smart, it would have called lockdown ‘home-leave’ or, even better, ‘home-benefits’ and legalised cannabis whilst it was at it.
But it didn’t, and now we are having to put up with news reports claiming that Boris has divided the cabinet and nation. Whilst I am not sure what he is doing in his cabinet, I am positive that the nation has been divided for years, between those who wish to preserve their way of life and those who seek to pervert it, so why should Boris get all the credit?
UK Anti-Lockdowners Embrace Division
Journalists often use this phrase ‘divided the nation’ as if there is a clear-cut division, when, in fact, the nation is divided into many clusters, and has been since the mass importation of different cultures, all of which have different objectives and markedly different allegiances.
The media claimed that Brexit had divided the country and at the fundamental level this is true. The simple division was between those who wanted to leave the EU and those who wanted to remain. But the media also claimed that the new divide had replaced the old left vs right paradigm. To a certain extent this was true as well, as in the last Brexit-fought election Labour suffered the hitherto unprecedented humiliation of being wiped out in its northern heartland.
But if you ignore the demographics and focus instead on the ideological composition of who wanted to remain in the EU as opposed to who wanted out, you will find without a shadow of a doubt that the remain camp had an overwhelmingly left subscription.
Although the argument against Brexit was packaged as an economic one, as if everyone on the left had suddenly become accountants, the real motivation lay in the fear, and it was a credible fear, that since the EU is the powerhouse of liberal-left ideology, should the UK pull the plug, especially on the EU’s biased legal apparatus, ie the European Court of Human Rights et al, the arsenal upon which the liberal-left depends for its ideological blitz against sovereignty patriots would be lost.
UK Anti-Lockdowners Embrace Division
So, taking this into consideration, how does the coronavirus lockdown division stack up?
Well, when you read the coverage in the *Independent and read stuff quoted from banners like, ‘I will not be masked, tracked, chipped or vaccinated … This will not be my new normal. I do not consent’ [thank you Patrick McGoohan] and read (quote) ‘Two women walked through the crowd wafting incense, while another insistently gave out copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,’ you hardly need a second opinion; besides, whose politics are the politics of the street? Oh, and by the way, among the small demonstration (about 100 people in all) gathered at London’s Hyde Park was Jeremy Corbyn’s brother.
However, the waters have been muddied a little. On 27 April 2020, **The Guardian ran an article which seemed to suggest that it is those on the right of the political divide that eschew lockdown, shortly after which the TUC saddled a high-horse about easing lockdown and teacher’s unions followed suit, becoming ever more bellicose about the government’s ‘reckless’ plans for easing lockdown. And if you look you will no doubt find that there are other media pieces that run counter to the argument that all liberals denounce lockdown as a violation of their sacred human rights. Indeed, there as many people across the political spectrum who want to stay barricaded in their houses as there are those who want out.
If the waters are muddy because of this, then the real sewage starts when we rake the bottom of the social media barrel, at which level can be found cloud upon cloud of conspiracy theories. The peddlers of such theories and their adherents cannot quite make up their collective dread whether the powers that be are in it together to keep us locked in or to force us out, and this is where you have to admit that being in charge (we won’t say control) of any country at this point in time is an absolute bummer, as you are bummed if you do and bummed if you don’t ~ so to speak.
If as the leader of a country you and your government lean towards a lockdown and social distancing policy, it’s ‘call me George Orwell’, but if you look for an ‘exit strategy’ and ways of ‘easing lockdown’, as if you have a magic laxative for the constipated state that coronavirus has imposed on us, you can rest assured of being accused of putting economy first and people last.
Here, on my personal Home Front, sadly my wife tends to stumble every other day into the conspiracy-theory camp. She has moments, funny turns I call them, when she cannot stop sending me links by email to back up all sorts of esoteric theories, which I chuck right out like yesterday’s demonstration banners.
Mark my words and make no mistake: ‘If you go looking for it, you’ll find it!’
Now where did I put that vodka bottle?
It’s nothing to do with leaving the sinking ship! Let me in, I want to come out!
Anti-Lockdown Contract (or a Modest Proposal)
Those that protest lockdown, do not want to self-isolate and persist in flouting the social-distancing rules should be allowed to do so provided they sign a contract or be placed on a national register, with the understanding that in the event that they contract Covid-19 the health service reserves the right to refuse them treatment, thereby reducing the risk of overwhelming the health service with their presence, leaving beds and other resources free for those who respect the rule of law, and by doing so endorse respect for doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers who risk their lives on a daily basis on the coronavirus frontline.
Copyright © 2018-2020 Mick Hart. All rights reserved.
References
*https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/27/lockdown-scepticism-culture-war-brexit