James Delingpole

James Delingpole The leader of the Anti-Mask Resistance "It's rude to stare!", most of us were told as kids. Just how rude you only realise when you're sitting in a near empty train carriage, minding your own business, when a man in a face mask gets on, takes his seat, swivels in your direction and fixes you with a long, long, cold, hard, death look. Culturally we're all so unused to this kind of behaviour that it comes as quite a shock to be on the receiving end. It's also a bit confusing – like being subjected to physical assault but only in the form of mime. That's why my immediate response was to mime back disbelievingly, mouthing and gesticulating the message: "Are you staring at me?" "Yes I am staring at you. You're not wearing a mask. Everyone else is wearing a mask. But not you. Why aren't you wearing a mask? I don't want to wear a mask either but I'm wearing a mask because we've all been told to," he shouted – or rather mumble-yelled from being his mouth-muffler. My biggest regret about this whole incident was my failure to put him in his place more crushingly and goadingly. But it's very hard to keep a cool, rational, calculating head when you're under attack. Even if the...

by James Delingpole The point of face masks is not to protect humans, but to diminish humanity – to rob people of their ego, their identity, and their autonomy. Masks are worn by disposable horror movie villains and ignorable background dancers; they make people less-than-human. If you haven't read it already, I commend to you an excellent piece in The Critic by Patrick Fagan, from which the above quotation is taken. It's titled "Face masks make you stupid". This of course is true and is one of the many reasons why I consider it my duty both as a free spirit and a responsible human being to avoid wearing a face muzzle wherever reasonably possible. On the rare occasions I do wear one, I feel like one of the conquered, enslaved victims when Conan the Barbarian is asked what is best in life. He replies: "To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women." Now imagine that grinning tosser Matt Hancock in the Conan role – or worse, re-enacting the sex dungeon scene in Pulp Fiction – and you'll better understand just how viscerally I loathe putting on one of those slave gags. Sometimes, though, you have no choice. For example, I have just come back from a holiday in Greece (Gialova...