- Re: Good to see this in a mainstream newspaper Archived Message
Posted by Ian M
on April 6, 2021, 11:13 am, in reply to "Re: Good to see this in a mainstream newspaper"
|
Good point about the libertarian/authoritarian axis Derek. I've been quietly surprised at some parts of Johnson's messaging through the pandemic about how they didn't want to unnecessarily take away peoples' freedoms. Of course a large part of that is referring to the freedom of business, but there was usually a personal civil liberties emphasis too. Even if this was the usual BS and they were working behind the scenes to exploit covid for all it was worth, as we saw with the serco test/trace contract and now the police & crime bill (not many freedoms left for protesters or the gypsy/traveller community!) I found it interesting that his handlers felt he had to at least signal benevolence on that side of things. Maybe it shows hidden strengths in the libertarian instincts of some on the right that the tories feel they have to pander to. As Willem points out it's instructive that dissent on this is coming from the right wing press, not the beeb or the graun. I remember Derren Allen pointing that out around the time of the first lockdown too, though I expect that will have been motivated primarily by not wanting to hurt business interests, not so much about the human cost. Anyway, yes, strange reversal of the usual stances from left & right. cheers, I |