Silvaire wrote:
without being illegally directed in how I do it.
Is someone or something trying to ‘illegally direct’ you?
They certainly aren’t doing that to me. There are certain (relatively minor) restrictions on my freedom at the moment, but they have been enacted by a democratically-elected government which is exercising the powers vested in it by the population.
One’s philosophy on the role of government is not relevant to the legality or otherwise of any action it may take.
I have the legal right to live in the UK, but will never do so. You guess why, other than half pay.
Worst and least-convincing strawman I’ve ever seen, thus I won’t bother to repeat the questionning of your (implied) bizarre assertion and I’ll exit the discussion.
Great, good choice.
Weren’t there a number of people being illegally dictated to early on in the lockdown. Police telling people they can’t sit outside in their own gardens, looking in baskets for non essential item purchases?
My only real experience or issue was with having my aircraft stuck at an airfield that had decided to stop anyone flying or getting out. That was pretty frustrating.
I read an outline of a paper the other day claiming that herd immunity may be reached at a much lower infection rate (20% overall if I recall) which would be interesting if correct.
@Off_Field, I’m sure most of what has been done in the UK is legal within UK law, with some exceptions being the result of brainless police. That was not my point. I prefer and enjoy living where threats to self-evident rights are illegal, and when inevitably an opportunity comes for a would be King to dictate ‘direction’ in spite of it, that direction is (1) ignored by an unafraid population, (2) unenforced due to an unwilling police force, and (3) in time legally contested and beaten.
Some might not like that, but happily their opinion has no effect on me whatsoever. I like that too.
That was not my point. I prefer and enjoy living where threats to self-evident rights are illegal, and when inevitably an opportunity comes for a would be King to dictate ‘direction’ in spite of it, that direction is (1) ignored by an unafraid population, (2) unenforced due to an unwilling police force, and (3) in time legally contested and beaten.
At risk of straying away from the COVID discussion, the impression I get in the news is that the USA is a place where you are two orders of magnitude more likely to be killed by the police than in the UK. People in Portland have been bundled into unmarked cars by federal officers who were not in uniform and whose presence was not requested by the state authorities, and the president has been suggesting postponing the elections that he currently seems likely to lose. Many US newspapers are inaccessible to me as Europe has stricter laws preventing companies from collecting information about individuals than the US does, and the US newspapers do not want to play ball.
I know a few people who have fallen foul of the UK lockdown regulations. Generally speaking the police have just gently corrected them. One person persisted and was told to expect a fine, but it never arrived. I think he’d have preferred it if it had, as now he is paranoid that he’s going to get into more trouble for not paying it!
It may be that the US has enjoyed a more peaceful past century than Europe, but that’s the past. What of the future?
I can assure others that UK police are not anywhere near as brainless as police in certain other countries in Europe!!! And to make it worse, the others are all carrying guns.
Anyway, I don’t want to move yet another load of posts to the political/OT thread so let’s leave this please?
I’ve lived both in the UK and USA. I find neither freer than the other; it’s just each one tends to emphasise different freedoms.
There is a lot of talk about a 2nd wave in Germany. New daily infections have risen to over 900, at least a threefold rise from the 200 to 300 we had over the past weeks.
This time, there is not a single superspreading event, unlike with the Toennies meat packing factory in June, but multiple smaller scale outbreaks all over the country. An estimated 10% are people who just returned from holidays outside the country, especially from former Yugoslavia, Turkey and Spain.
