The NI Government is currently running a public consultation on the Orwellian Public Health Bill. The new Bill is seeking to upgrade and strengthen the existing Public Health Act and bring it into alignment with the World Health Organisation’s notorious International Health Regulations. Human Rights Lawyer Michael Brentnall has analysed the 79-page policy document in detail and explains what he found in a highly informative video interview. He describes the proposed NI Public Health Bill as “spine-chilling” and “the most frightening proposed piece of legislation I have ever read”. Mr. Brentnall says that this Bill has “the potential to take us to a dystopian future whereby we are under the jackboot of the state”.
The Bill would give the authorities unprecedented power in a health emergency, including the ability to mandate vaccines and preventative treatment for individuals, potentially opening the door to forced vaccinations. It also seeks to give authorities the power to:
- detain and quarantine individuals for up to 28 days;
- mandate the wearing of “medical clothing” e.g. face masks;
- force medical examinations and health monitoring;
- forcibly enter premises and confiscate belongings without a warrant;
- require children to be kept off school;
- close businesses and keep adults off work;
- breach medical confidentiality and privacy by allowing wide data sharing of patient medical information with various state bodies;
- require an individual to answer questions regarding their health status;
- require a person to attend “training or advice sessions”;
- legislate as to “where the person may go or with whom the person has contact”.
A court would simply have to ascertain that a person “may be infected” or “could present” a risk to human health and infection or contamination of others. This is far too weak a position to justify the draconian and extreme restrictions and requirements detailed in the document. Forced medical examination, forced vaccination, removal and detention of a person and the restriction of movement, on the basis of an unproven risk, are gross violations of medical ethics and fundamental human rights.
The provision to remove a person to a hospital or “other facility” and detain his against his will is sinister and a breach of fundamental individual freedoms and rights. This power was greatly abused in New Zealand and some Australian states during the Covid lockdowns and amounts to internment without trial, based on unproven and unreliable testing procedures such as PCR tests.
The proposed isolation of individuals was a measure used during Covid and had serious detrimental effects on the mental and physical health of many. The risks to the individual and society far outweigh any purported benefits. Human beings are sociable, needing human company to maintain overall physical and mental health. Isolation benefits no-one, particularly children.
The legislation extends to premises, people and things, and gives the authorities (in the form of the police and other unspecified enforcement agencies) powers which they have never previously had, including powers to seize people’s property, to enter premises to disinfect or decontaminate, and to “require a person to answer questions”. There is no doubt that these powers will be open to abuse by overzealous officials or poorly trained constables.
Do we really want to create a society where officials can forcibly enter people’s homes and take them away? If someone invoked her legal right to remain silent, would the officer have the right to use physical violence to force that person to answer a question? Orders could be imposed by magistrates’ courts simply on the belief that a person may be infected or contaminated. This is an extremely vague formulation which is open to abuse and panicky decision-making at times of crisis.
The proposal to force a person to be vaccinated or to receive other prophylactic treatment, against her will and without her consent, is abhorrent and a direct assault on the principle of bodily autonomy. It violates all the current laws and codes around informed consent and ethical medical treatment. This is a hard red line that should never be crossed by the state. This clear ethical boundary between the state and the individual exists to prevent the state abusing its power to force medical treatment on a sovereign individual. Where there is risk there must be choice.
It is encouraging that last week the Northern Ireland Health Minister Mike Nesbitt spoke out against mandatory vaccination, saying:
I am not in favour of mandatory vaccination even in limited and tightly prescribed circumstances. Nevertheless, it is right that we have a public conversation about all potential options in the public consultation, as we decide what should be in the final Bill to protect us all.
But we must not be complacent. In point 10 of the Annex of the consultation document (page 76) it states that one of the reasons for the consultation is that “Opinion is divided as to whether there should be a power to impose medical treatment on an individual”.
It is important to remember that medical ethics and laws protecting individual rights exist for emergencies, when decisions are often taken in panic or fear, and when abuse and atrocities are most likely to occur. We cannot allow the desire for safety to override individual autonomy. There appears to have been no consideration of the serious costs and harms resulting from the list of restrictions and requirements – on both the individuals affected and wider society – or any safeguarding of the right of individuals involved to challenge these orders.
The proposed Bill would give unprecedented and highly authoritarian powers to the state, with minimal and flimsy protections for individuals. The scope of powers proposed constitutes a gross overreach by the state into areas of personal autonomy and responsibility. The state appears to have lost sight of the fact that, in a democracy, its role is to serve the public, not rule over them. This proposed bill is not a response to public demand for more restrictions, but instead is driven by a clear desire by public health authorities to expand their powers and further encroach into decision-making and risk mitigation for the public, which individuals are quite capable of doing themselves. It is an attempt by the authorities to micromanage the life of individuals in a vain attempt to eliminate risk caused by a natural agent such as a virus, infantilising the public in the process.
The experience of the last four years clearly demonstrates that no amount of state micromanagement of public life had any significant effect on the mortality or morbidity from Covid, but that the abuse of state power in fact caused devastating collateral damage to individual physical and mental health, children’s education, societal cohesion and the economy. The lessons learned from Covid should lead us instead to restrict the powers of the state in an emergency and put a higher protection on individual freedoms and medical ethics in all circumstances, trusting in people to be able to assess their own risk, make their own decisions and take responsibility for themselves and those around them in a humane and balanced way.
The deadline for the public consultation has just been extended from September 27th to October 14th 2024, due to “significant public interest”. Predictably, the authorities have not made it easy for members of the public to respond, as it involves answering nearly 50 detailed questions relating to complex proposals in the 79-page policy document, which is a time-consuming process.
In his interview, Michael Brentnall announced that he and his colleagues are instigating a legal challenge to the Public Consultation itself – which is required in law to be both clear and concise, to make it easy for the layperson to engage with. I can attest to the fact that it is neither! I spent about four to five hours last weekend completing the UKMFA submission, objecting to the Bill in the strongest possible terms.
We have published the UKMFA submission on our campaign page, along with other resources and links, to help the public engage with the consultation. There are also links to helpful template letters prepared by Together and Stop the NI Health Bill group for Northern Ireland residents to send to their MLPs.
This is a deeply disturbing bill, seeking to expand the powers of the state in ways which would violate fundamental principles of medical ethics – informed consent, bodily autonomy, medical choice – and also infringe many other human rights. These new measures would give the authorities the ability to exercise even more power than they did with Covid – and Northern Ireland could be used as a model for the wider U.K. It is vital that ordinary people make their voices heard before the October 14th deadline.
Dr. Elizabeth Evans is CEO of the U.K. Medical Freedom Alliance.
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.
The long walk to freedom – the short step to fascist, authoritarian tyranny.
When will we ever learn, when will we ever learn?
Nelson Mandela is quoted as saying;
”According to Mandela, true freedom is the ability to exercise one’s rights and express oneself without fear of persecution or discrimination.”
King Canute demonstrated that we cannot control everything, what makes these fascist dictators think that they know best and can and should impose their shocking and horrifying medical tyrannies on the rest of mankind? How can anyone become so arrogant and so full of themselves that they impose these horrors on the rest of mankind?
I’m going to show off here. I’ve just completed the form above by cutting and pasting their answers. Cheating I know and it may not have any affect but it made me feel good! Oh it only took a couple of hours!
This should be front page on every newspaper. Instead we mave a supine collaborative with the establishment MSM. This article is horrific. What these officials want is pure nightmare fuel.
It was on the front page of Northern Ireland’s main newspaper, and was discussed and strongly attacked and condemned on Northern Ireland’s most listened to radio programme, The Nolan Show on BBC Radio Ulster.
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/columnists/sam-mcbride/department-of-healths-bungling-over-forced-vaccinations-is-dangerous-but-not-for-the-reasons-conspiracy-theorists-are-claiming/a1941572650.html?=123
From 49.30 to 1.22.00:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00237kp
Good 👍
You really have to wonder what is going on in the minds of these people, its almost like they are programmed robots, without any human sensibilities.
Same mentality that gave us Stalin, Hilter , Mao , Pol Pot , Argentina , Rowanda etc , why should it be any different now ! Give busy bodies a chance & they will take it !! As Bret Weinstein said “If free speech dies , Violence comes next “ are we on the verge ?????
Maybe AI is more advanced than we have been led to believe.
Only just seen this & so few comments ! Even we seem a bit complacent ! It’s obvious that the WHO are trying to sneak their treaty,that’s stalled for now, in through any gap they can find ! The UN thing in New York were spouting this mantra as well ! Can it all be stopped , Starmer will be all for it !! ( so many !! 🤦🏼♂️)
It’s not stalled at all.
They went for the big new treaty, didn’t get enough traction, so they are just doing it piecemeal.
In the absence of a fuller treaty the WHO did manage to approve and get funding for their early detection task force. That gives them the mechanism to “find” new dangerous viruses and raise the alarm. This will ensure the pressure is kept up on countries to “act” when they find these new supposedly lethal viruses.
Now they are setting up a legal model that forces countries to act when they sound their alarm. And I’m sure Northern Ireland has been picked very deliberately. It’s small and not likely to attract too much attention. It can then be spread to the rest of the UK, under the guise of standardising procedures. Once the UK has it in place, it’s a large country model for others to copy and implement.
And no doubt they are doing tonnes of other things too in the background to push their horrid agenda forward.
This is the problem of bureaucracies. They have all these people at work, scheming all day how to control you and regulate you. And it takes enormous effort to fight them back.
The only real protection against the relentless creep of regulation and. control is to dismantle the bureaucracies and keep the ones you really need as anaemic as possible.
Thanks Stewart , the dirty Barstewards are getting away with it atm !
This stems from the WHO’s new ammendments in which they have established a new global monitoring and “quick response” department to supposedly catch new diseases early.
In the context of stopping a n extremely dangerous disease early by identifying and isolating a handful of individuals early it might sound even sort of reasonable.
Except, we all know what the thin end of a wedge looks.like. We also know that if you go looking for supposedly dangerous viruses you’ll surely find them. We also know that officials like to err on the side of caution, you know, better safe than sorry, so they’ll take precautions with maybe not so dangerous viruses.
But yeah, there is Professional Managerial Class serving an oligarchy determined to treat us all like cattle. Or like their slave property, if you prefer.
In the eyes of the UK government, no matter if it’s Labour or Tory, we are no more than cattle, to be quietly led to the abattoir of their choice.
There are so many proposed breaches of the current Law listed in this article, not least physical and mental assault, that it is difficult to believe the proposers are not worried about being prosecuted themselves. They must be feeling very confident. The egregious nature of the proposals seem to expect mitigation, so important things get through under the guise of concession. These measures are so utterly vile and treacherous we are left wondering why on earth Jo Public has to object while paid public servants of all kinds keep silent. After all, it’s coming for them too.
There is a crazy conspiracy theory that compulsory mRNA will be used to change human DNA and therefore human nature, to make it more compliant. Bind our mouths with a bandage to shut us up and job done. Nonsense, of course.
As Ruth Dudley Edwards said one week ago, Sinn Fein is behind this.
It is worth pointing out that almost all of these provisions (apart from forced vaccinations) “only” bring Northern Ireland into line with the rest of the UK.
The UK’s notorious Public Health Act 1984 (used by Matt Hancock and the Fake Conservatives to impose lockdowns etc during COVID) was originally a pretty sound Act. However in 2008 it was amended by the Health and Social Care Act to give the government draconian powers to enforce public health measures by regulations, without prior approval by parliament.
Steve Baker and others have called for reform of our Public Health Act.
Anti-lockdown Tories call for new ‘Public Health Act’ to ensure greater scrutiny over Covid restrictions (inews.co.uk)
Of course the Fake Conservative government that oversaw the lockdowns, and the Labour government that followed, have shown no inclination at all to give up these anti-democratic powers.
Pure evil. Very sinister and corrupt. Medical ethics out of the window.
It ignores all the international conventions regarding individual sovereignty and the right to informed consent. Reminiscent of Jacinda Ardern and Dan Andrews abusing the citizens of NZ and Oz during the Covid pandemic.
utterly repulsive.