In the Telegraph, Daniel Hannan reminds us that, five years ago, Britain chose a path to financial ruin, crushed civil liberties and shattered public trust by succumbing to lockdown hysteria. Here’s how his piece begins:
What the hell were we thinking? Five years ago, we were sliding towards the most expensive mistake ever made by a British government, a mistake that led to our financial ruin, the annihilation of our basic freedoms and the obliteration of public trust.
Never before had our civil liberties been so blatantly disregarded. We were subjected to house arrest on the basis of unsupported conjecture, our property rights were violated, our freedom of expression repressed, even our ability to leave the country denied.
Where were all the human rights lawyers when they were needed? Where were the Doughty Street types, so vocal in their defence of illegal migrants, convicts and terrorists? The one time that there truly was a national human rights violation, they were cheering it on.
Meanwhile, the British state told lie after lie after lie. Just three weeks! Facemasks are dangerous! One more month! Facemasks are essential! Squash the sombrero! Young people are at risk! Just two more weeks! Wait for the vaccine! Wait for the second vaccine! Your jab protects others! It’s the third shot that really works! Dangerous new variant! One last lockdown! Just three more weeks!
As we approach the fifth anniversary, we don’t like to admit that we destroyed our economy, took away part of our kids’ childhoods, permanently aggrandised the state and indebted ourselves for a generation – all for nothing.
Because we don’t want to accept such horrifying truths, we reach for excuses. We could only work on the basis of best-guess models, we tell ourselves. We followed the science as it stood. Who knows how much worse things might have been had we not locked down?
I’m afraid these justifications are, as the saying goes, pure cope. The careful protocols of our own scientific advisers, as well as of the World Health Organisation (WHO), counted for nothing when set against hysterical newspaper headlines, panicky opinion polls and feverish rants by Piers Morgan. …
The tax hikes, the devaluation of our savings, the uncontrollable national debt – these things were inescapable consequences of paying people to stay home for the better part of two years. …
For years to come, Britain will be poor, indebted and repressive because, in early March 2020, no one (with the exception of one brave Sunday Telegraph columnist, modesty forbids, etc.) wanted to stand in the way of a stampede. We did this to ourselves.
Worth reading in full.
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