Since the start of the pandemic, the Government has introduced a plethora of rules concerning when we can and cannot leave our homes.
Anyone with symptoms is meant to self-isolate at home. Ditto for anyone who tests positive or who comes into contact with someone who’s tested positive. People travelling to Britain from overseas must self-isolate too (except football VIPs). And during the lockdown last year, we weren’t supposed to leave our homes for any reason other than work, exercise or food shopping.
Needless to say, these rules have made life difficult for a lot of people – particularly those who travel regularly, or who manage a small business. The current ‘pingdemic’ is wreaking havoc on Britain’s economy, as service-providers struggle to meet demand for lack of staff.
While asking symptomatic people to self-isolate arguably makes sense, it’s less clear whether all the other rules and regulations can be justified. In a 2019 report on pandemic influenza, the WHO recommended things such as ventilation of indoor spaces and isolation of symptomatic individuals. However, it classified “quarantine of exposed individuals” as “not recommended in any circumstances”.
Aside from the considerable inconvenience they cause, there’s another potential downside of the lockdown rules. Because they’re so difficult to enforce, large numbers of people are simply ignoring them. And might this, in turn, be undermining general norms of law-abidingness?
A major study published in The BMJ back in March found that only 43% of symptomatic people fully adhered to self-isolation – and that was based on data from last year, when the disease was seen as much more of a threat. It’s likely that a similar or even lower percentage of people have been complying with all the other rules.
Why does this matter? Studies have shown that when people observe norms being violated, they become more likely to violate norms themselves, leading to the gradual erosion of norm compliance. For example, a 2008 paper found that people were more likely to litter when there was graffiti next to a “No graffiti” sign than when there were no obvious signs of norm violation.
Regarding the pandemic itself, there’s already evidence that the scandal surrounding Dominic Cummings’ trip to Barnard Castle had a negative effect on adherence to lockdown rules. People reasoned, “If he’s not following the rules, then why should I?”
But the effect might be even more general than that. After witnessing so many examples of lockdown violations over the past year and a half, might people have become more likely to break other rules in society as well? I’m not aware of any evidence of this at the present time, but it doesn’t seem at all implausible.
Of course, one might say: even if the lockdown rules have slightly undermined law-abidingness, they were worth it to control the epidemic. Given the lack of evidence on stay-at-home orders, I am rather doubtful of this. But at the very least, there’s yet another potential cost of lockdown for us to consider.
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I have anecdotally observed that the speed people are driving on the motorway is waaaay higher than it used to be before the lockdown started. Way higher.
Well that’s a rare benefit of lockdown then. Less time wasted dawdling along at an arbitrary speed limit imposed by morons and people with ulterior motives.
I find much of the time wasted on journeys is caused by morons who overestimate their skill and the laws of dynamics and cause major blockages when they come unstuck.
You forget the Sunday drivers who decide that, since they never go above 36 mph, they don’t need mirrors, indicators etc.
No – I don’t forget them. But they’re more an irritation than the dangerously delusional.
Actually – even before this shit-show, I often used to ponder on the average intelligence of the nation based on basic driving behaviour, and understanding of the reality of the laws of physics exhibited by those (amongst others) who wet their knickers trying to get somewhere 3s faster (It’s not for nothing that they’re called a ‘Bleedin’ Moron Wagon’ 🙂 ).
The shit-show has confirmed a pessimistic assessment. I mean, there’s ‘mistakes‘, and then there’s sheer dumbness.
Accidents are never caused by breaking a speed limit.
Some accidents are caused by driving too fast for the particular conditions applicable (road, personal, vehicle etc).
Most are caused by other factors, though, with speed only being an aggravating factor in terms of severity. Distraction, tiredness, mechanical failure, aggression, overcaution, etc.
“morons who overestimate their skill”
“tiny dicks with delusional judgment”
People who are too scared or too incompetent to drive at more than moderate speed often get very hate-filled when contemplating people who are able to do what they are unable or unwilling to do. The usual response is to call for laws against other people being free to do those things. It’s the same basic dynamic as those fearful of covid wanting those not so fearful to be forced to comply with their own fear-filled modes of living.
Yeah: a couple of months ago I was driving on a very straight stretch of road in Norfolk. It was dry and visibility was perfect. Limit was 60 so I non-aggressively overtook someone driving at 35. He flashed his headlights and hit the horn.
He’s probably used to driving behind tractors boy.
Jesus! Really??!!!
“Some accidents are caused by driving too fast for the particular conditions applicable (road, personal, vehicle etc).”
Which is precisely what I’m saying : that’s who I class as dicks and morons who overestimate their limited capabilities. There’s lots about. Why so sensitive?
Well said, Mark. Authoritarians love to assign importance to things that are easy to measure rather than measure what is important. The dumbing down of driving has been a pilot for the covid shit show.
Indeed. Speed limits are there precisely for that reason: to make life easier for the authorities – police and courts. Instead of having to prove that someone did something actually dangerous, they can just measure his speed and compare it to a more or less arbitrary number.
“It’s the same basic dynamic as those fearful of covid wanting those not so fearful to be forced to comply with their own fear-filled modes of living.“ So true!
Utter unadulterated drivel. “Some accidents are caused by driving too fast for the particular conditions applicable (road, personal, vehicle etc)” …..What happens if that involves the guilty party driving in excess of the speeding limit for the road (which BTW is not a “smart” limit , but fixed requiring judgment by the driver) AND the conditions. You can still cause an accident by driving under the speed limit – or “immoderately” – as well as over “it”. I am very able to drive faster, but within the designated limit, but often do not choose to do so because it is inappropriate – for often a multitude of reasons – to do so – am I “scared” or “incompetent”?
“Being free to do those things”….and that may mean “everyone else who gets in my way can eff off”. I think further therapy is needed.
Interesting article – thanks for the share. So the more sophisticated, efficient and eco-friendly our cars become, the slower we have to go. Meanwhile in Germany…
I’ve not noticed that during quite extensive recent journeys.
The idiot quotient of tiny dicks with delusional judgment tailgating each other seems about constant.
Though, shouldn’t we get back to the matter in hand rather than the subject of petrolheads confusing speed limits with fundamental human rights?
“Though, shouldn’t we get back to the matter in hand rather than the subject of petrolheads confusing speed limits with fundamental human rights?“
“It’s just a mask”
“Shut up complaining about the bits of the nanny state that I like and that bother you. I only want people to talk about the bits that bother me!”
Once again, you have hit the nail firmly on the head!
Me too. 85mph seems the default now.
And a perfectly safe speed to travel at in a modern car in reasonable weather conditions and in not overcrowded road conditions.
I live in a mediaval street, one way as it is so narrow, which is one of the main streets out of the town centre. it is 20mph, which most people are not even aware off, Last spring it was busy if I had 8 cars down this road during the day. Now it is back to normal, but the speed they come along has increased. And that is not only the boy racers at night.
I haven’t really noticed this. Have seen masked people driving through built up areas, while checking their phones though.
I think stuff like this is fine, especially for first-time visitors who may not have had the benefit of 18 months worth of cogent anti-lockdown material, but I think the main focus of the “movement” now should be tactics and strategy for how to drag civilisation out of this folly and evil.
We have had the perfect storm of an immature government, led by egotistical and narcissistic personalties, not used to making decisions any longer (due to the EU), and a well organised and subversive SAGE committee, causing no end of trouble, for personal and political gain.
The time for a hard pushback and correction is long overdue.
“ (due to the EU)”
Nothing to do with it. This compliance is all home grown from arsehole Tory stock, backed by a dozy nation. The compliance was voluntary and despite Brexit.
“Tory stock” ? What on earth has that got to do with it? Labour and the risibly named Liberal Democrats are just as authoritarian as the bloody Conservatives.
but Norway’s great innit, it’s like, better than Sweden!
I have myself felt extremely rebellious because of the micro-managing rules and would have less compunction about breaking any law I see as stupid and pointless now – should I come across one. I can also see that people realise that the regulations just can’t be enforced properly and can well imagine that they are tempted to break others as well, having got into the habit. But of course the big thing is that I now have zero trust in lawmakers and no more respect for them. I have my inner moral compass and that’s all I need. The more the PM announces new areas requiring v-passports the more angry and rebellious I become, because it makes no sense at all, unless he is just trying to control us.
“Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men.”
― Douglas Bader
good old Bader, and great filum.
Bader may have used it, but it was coined by ‘Harry Day’ around 1920. Ex RM officer, transferred to the RAF where he rose to the rank of GP Capt. Captured and imprisoned in Stalag Luft 3 (amongst other places). He planned ‘The Great Escape’ with Sqn Ldr Roger Bushell.
I seriously doubt they have undermined law-abidingness and in fact think they have done the opposite – given licence to busybodies and freaks to stick their noses even further into other people’s business.
Agree, a friend of mine couldn’t visit his daughter as the street she lived on was “Covid aware”, in other words spying on each other and they would report her to the Stasi for breaking the rules.
It gets worse and worse.
Vaccine passports
It’s what Laura Dodsworth said in her book . Making up and enforcing pointless rules is part of the fear/control narrative .
I agree. Though people for the main part have an inbuilt bullshit radar and will eventually ignore petty unhelpful arbitrary ever-changing rules as the pile of crap they are
“people for the main part have an inbuilt bullshit radar”
Evidently not re. Covid
No I know plenty who think the rules are beyond ridiculous, even if they haven’t sussed what’s really going on.
Basically, all the institutions have failed us: the government, the opposing party, the 4th Estate, the Church, the Unions, many of the medical branch, the MPs as a whole, everyone. We have no one with any clout to represent us and to form an opposition to the lies and eroding of our Human Rights
Until they are punished and sent on “awareness” courses.
…. and to give the appearance that they know what they are doing when the pointless rules are in fact just made up on the fly.
Here in Australia, for example, with three states in hard lockdown, South Australian residents in home detention are restricted to outdoors exercise within a 2.5 km radius of home (such precision!), Victorians get 5 km of elbow room whilst Sydneysiders get an expansive 10 km in New South Wales. Three different, arbitrary and equally absurd restrictions based on ‘Science’ (or should that be three ‘Sciences’!).
Remember, too, the ‘social distancing’ ‘Science’ that instructed us to keep 1.5 metres, or 2 metres, or 2.5 metres apart, depending which part of the globe you happened to be in, and which the technocrats used to determine nonsensical venue capacity limits? All made up, of course, but all serving to give the lockdown authorities a patina of scientific legitimacy.
For the record, as a South Australian, I cycle well past the 2.5 km ‘limit’ as part of my daily exercise routine trying to keep things as normal as possible. The Covid Taliban haven’t pulled me over and given me a lecture or a fine. Enforceable, these restrictions are not – but they do serve to intimidate and browbeat people into compliance with the narrative that there is viral danger on the loose but controlling it is in wise hands.
Having got through the avalanche of NHS, LA and Government ads that I’ve generously paid for, and eventually reached the news bits of the local press, it seems that there are more than usual reports of affrays, muggings, thefts, drug, sexual and motor vehicle-related crimes. The summer holiday in this rural part of East Anglia usually means an increase in things being set alight or vandalised, but it seems to have started earlier, and gone on longer.
The equipment on our local farms are fair game for thieves from far and wide.
By the time, and if, the coppers turn up, the perpetrators and the loot are long gone.
If the peak cases doesn’t hit 100,000 can we organise a campaign of write ins demanding to know why ministers don’t take advice from more calm minds.
And one that states that removing masks clearly causes cases to plummet. After all if correlation is good enough for the goose, it’s good enough for the gander.
A bit of the statement of the bleedin’ obvious.
But it’s not about ‘law abidingness’ – it’s more fundamental. Law doesn’t exist in a vacuum – it rests on agreed (or essentially accepted) social norms.
Fundamentally undermine that framework of rational trust and consent, and you are in a wild west of mistrust or irrational and enforced ‘follow the rules’. The moral aspect of compliant behaviour is sucked out.
But actually, my main worry is about compliance – with pseudo law and totalitarian imposition.
I’ve only ever followed laws I agree with.
Same here.
If a law or regulation doesn’t make sense I ignore it. I believe I am perfectly capable of conducting myself in a decent manner in this world.
I find the “law of reasonableness” the perfect guide.
i said this to someone recently and they said “so you will just murder someone if you want”.
People are fucking idiots.
I personally distinguish between laws that forbid real crimes – assault, murder, rape theft etc, which I try to obey even when I would like not to, and other laws that I class as advisory regs, that I obey only when coerced or when it makes sense to obey them. The third category would be wrongful laws that I disobey on principle, such as mask mandates.
The former should be heavily enforced, with draconian punishments, the latter lightly and intermittently policed and breaches lightly punished.
If I could, I would enact this into the constitution, along the lines of the old felony/misdemeanour distinction still in place in the US.
any bright ideas on delaying payment of tax instalment due on 31 July
Amend your 19/20 tax return and reduce your POAs by half!
thanks, by chance I am seeing accountant tomorrow to discuss 2020/21 return so I will ask him if there is time for him to do this
One thing I’ve learnt since 2020 is that when Government passed a law that affects you then read the law and look for loopholes.
They’re bound to be in there, for the use of their mates.
Dont all laws affect us?
What an interesting article, encouraging thought and discussion.
I was always someone who questioned “the norm”, and this attitude of “allowed” or “duerfen” in German, made me mad. You can do what ever you want, it might have negative consequences for you, but you CAN DO IT!
No one can forbid me to leave my house as often I want during one day!
One thing that the whole shit show has instilled in me is that I now no longer accept the rule of the law. The social contract is broken and I will break any law that I can get away with and that doesn’t contradict my own morals.
The problem is that most people have had no idea what was law and what was guidelines or advice, including the police.
I’ve lost count of the times I’ve heard ” we can legally hug now”!
To add, I haven’t heard plod say that yet lol!
Of course they have been undermining social norms. Essentially, that is the driving force behind all of this.
I used to be a stickler for rules, and “doing the right thing”. I’m not any more. When I started going barefaced in places where it was not “allowed”, I even started to see the criminal mentality of, say, shoplifters. “I didn’t get challenged this time” becomes “the idea of masking on a train now seems quite alien, even though everybody around me is”.
Yes, I don’t bother with any laws that make no sense to me, if. I think I can get away with breaking them
Quite frankly, it’s all gone a bit Pirates of the Caribbean.
Captain Barbossa : “First, your return to shore was not part of our negotiations nor our agreement so I must do nothing. And secondly, you must be a pirate for the pirate’s code to apply and you’re not. And thirdly, the code is more what you’d call “guidelines” than actual rules.”
The government have been undermining the essence of life.