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Thursday 26 March 2020

A sense of totalitarian delight.





Road checkpoints are to be used in North Yorkshire to determine if drivers' journeys are essential.

It comes after people across the UK were urged to stay at home unless absolutely necessary to slow the spread of coronavirus.

The move is being introduced to ensure motorists are complying with government restrictions, North Yorkshire Police said.

The checkpoints will be in place at different locations across the county.

A subterranean current flowing all the way through the coronavirus debacle is a sense of totalitarian delight at the draconian government response. A vast number of people seem to revel in it while piously deploring what in the UK is currently a small number of deaths. A suspiciously small number of deaths in my view but that's another story.

They seem to want a strong all-embracing government which tells everyone what to do. They really don't want and don't really understand independence and don't see why anyone else should be allowed to have it.

6 comments:

Sam Vega said...

I think the glee cuts both ways. There are also people who consider any restrictions on their precious "liberty" to be unjustified, and are prepared to have a big row with the forces of repression - if ever they met one. The drama is more important than which way you are facing in the argument.

it's significant that - as usual - the police start with motorists. That's the one area of life that the police can always win against the public; once they have your registration number, they cannot fail to get a result. I wonder why they don't start with breaking up gangs of teenagers in the local park, Muslims at prayer, crowded beaches, or traveller's camps.

The Jannie said...

Sam V - because they're too much like hard work.

Scrobs. said...

Did you see the drone in Derby yesterday?

I walk JRT for half an hour every morning and have never got within three yards of anyone, which is a pity, as one girl always gets a prolonged hug..:0(

A K Haart said...

Sam - yes the glee cuts both ways but I don't think it cuts equally. To my mind there is also a feeling that this has demonstrated just how far the total government rachet has advanced and that there is no going back.

Jannie - and probably a consequence of tick box culture.

Scrobs - saw news reports about police drones in Derbyshire but we stayed in.

Woodsy42 said...

It won't end well if the police spend their time bullying law-abiding people doing reasonable things while ignoring idiots deliberately flouting the rules and not having enough manpower for petty criminals. Respect for the police is low enough now.

A K Haart said...

Woodsy - it won't end well for us.