We’re publishing a terrific piece today by Dr John Fanning, a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Liverpool, about the authorities’ heavy-handed treatment of students in Liverpool’s Sefton Park last week. He has every sympathy for these students wanting to have a bit of fun in the sun after being cooped up like rabbits for the best part of a year. But others felt differently.
Naturally, the fun police – by which I mean Merseyside Police – were soon on the case. Dozens of officers alighted from the sort of heavy-duty police vans one might expect to see after a gangland shooting and strode purposefully into the park. They issued more than 40 fines for breaches of the coronavirus regulations, accusing at least one group of students of being part of an ‘organised festival’ before ordering them to pay a £100 fine, which will rise to £200 if unpaid after 14 days. Merseyside Police announced that it “will not tolerate irresponsible individuals” and issued a dispersal order covering a large area of south Liverpool. In a statement tinged with the sort of moral superiority that should have no place in modern policing, Superintendent Mark Wiggins said: “Unfortunately there are people who believe that the rules the rest of us abide by are not for them. We are here to protect our communities”. We can all sleep soundly in our beds, then.
The fallout from this episode is astonishing. I do not use Twitter and I seldom look at comments posted beneath news articles – there be dragons, etc. – but a brief survey of the Liverpool Echo’s website and Twitter this weekend was enough to make me lose any remaining faith I had in humanity. The students were described as a “shower of tramps”, “selfish little rats”, and “idiots” and urged – with a revolting civic nativism – to “Go back home to [their] own cities”. “They’re going to start another wave of the virus with their stupidity”, declared one of many armchair epidemiologists who weighed in with his considered view; “Water-cannon the lot of them”, suggested another.
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
You’ve moved to Halton? You’ve already “gone native” – only a Scouser calls “Home Bargains” Home and Bargain”!
Hate Not Hope – Underlying principle of Sir Two-Tier’s government.
I keep hearing Zia Farage UK is soaring in the polls but every time I look Zia Farage UK is on 25%, slightly ahead or slightly behind Labour.
It’s not hard to imagine the Zia Farage UK is the establishment’s choice to form the next government to give the appearance of democracy. They’ll be a few token tax cuts, the boats will magically stop, maybe a referendum on ECHR and Net Zero, which will be ignored like the Brexit vote. Nothing much will really change.
Britain needs restoration not “reform”. Every single law made since 1997 should be repealed, every quango closed, and the police force and judiciary need rebuilding from scratch.
Very good.
I do agree, but maybe reform is the only other choice for now! Rather Reform headed by a donkey than the uniparty headed by the living dead!
Indeed. Quite a few laws made before 1997 should be repealed too, IMO. The question is, is there any appetite among the wider public for such a program? I don’t think there is, though it would be good to see someone try. Rupert Lowe certainly sounded like he was thinking along these lines.
40% of the electorate didn’t vote last time.
True but I doubt that many of those 40% would vote for the kind of program you are advocating. I may of course be wrong and it would be great to find out.
That’s because they are in despair of their vote making any difference.
And no wonder, when the votes of British citizens are swamped and overwhelmed by the Outrageous Commonwealth Voting Rights in British Elections, by citizens of 56 foreign countries!
The heroic campaigners who founded “Migration Watch”, former UK Ambassador Lord Andrew Green and Oxford Professor David Coleman, have been trying to wake up the public for years to ABOLISH THE COMMONWEALTH VOTING RIGHTS in UK elections. All to no avail, because the media and politicians conceal it, and the public won’t listen.
I’ve never heard of the Commonwealth Voting Rights.
Yes, of course there is an “appetite” among the public starving for change! They’ve just been waiting for some bold new ideas, like a lantern in the darkness, showing the way.
I hope you are right
100%.
Hear, hear! Well said, the Lockdown Sceptic! And that’s an apt new name for Reform: “Zia Farage UK”. I like it!
Astoundingly, it is being predicted that around 35% of the votes (obv not the local electorate since many won’t bother) will go to the Labour Party which makes it so clear it despises them.
They can’t ALL be Public Sector employees and/or Muslims, can they?
What excuse do the rest of them have?
They’re the professional unemployed …
I dunno, The people of Canada voted in Carney! nothing suprises me anymore
Indeed. Tragic.
Not really. According to the BBC, it’s hung parliament with the Liberals having exactly as many seats (168) as all other parties together.
Trump’s persistent attempts to be the playground bully who keeps whining about being bullied all the time while smashing other kid’s toys left, right and center were bound to help politicians opposed to him. That’s a political classic: In case of trouble at home, make war on a foreign country. Still helps if it’s only a rethorical war.
Indeed they hate their own voters, as did (and probably still do) the Fake Conservatives, as famously pointed out by Hitchens on Question Time, talking about “Slippery Dave” Cameron. Worth searching out the clip on YouTube just to see Justine Greening’s face.
Excellent article by Steven Tucker, and a nice photo of Nigel with Reform’s new Trojan Horse.
Reform UK’s Runcorn candidate welcomed Syrian and Afghan refugees – but now ‘fully supports net zero immigration’
Councillor expelled from Cheshire East Conservative group – Cheshire Live
“Cllr Sarah Pochin has been expelled by Cheshire East Tories after she agreed to become mayor when the Independents and Labour voted for her”
Remember: A Vote for Reform is a Vote for the Caliphate
Classic Farage – shit all over the local party by dumping some outsider on them.
Maybe it’s just me, but why does Farage seem to always wander about with very dark sunglasses on – not being able to see the whites of peoples eyes is not good to build trust… hasn’t anyone told him that?
Maybe it’s because of that nasty Only Fans prostitute who threw a milkshake in his eyes, temporarily blinding him, as he described his shock afterward, since he didn’t know whether the liquid was something acid or toxic.
I don’t blame him for taking precautions now by wearing sunglasses.
A great deal of party politics in the UK, especially in cities, has been ‘Machine Politics’.
Wikipedia:
But the Conservatives have lost their machine power, and Labour are realising that their machine power is running away through their fingers. Reform and various Muslim organisations are picking up the disaffected. I guess ‘Machine Politics’ wins – until the machine becomes worn out and breaks down.
Before scoffing at the healing power of crystals perhaps the author should think about crystal radios. Crystals do have healing powers, only those irredeemably wedded to prescription drugs think otherwise