How we can – and should – oust Covid’s petty tyrants
Without laws banning lockdowns, digital IDs and masks, you will never be free. It is time to get organised politically
By Adam Edwards
THE restrictions may be ending but don’t be fooled. The masks will return, the vaccine passes will be reactivated and we will lock down harder, faster and longer next time a so-called new variant, virus – or imminent climate threat – emerges.
Every politician has told us as much, as they relaxed restrictions. Even those who did not, such as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, have repeatedly gone back on their word and reversed the so-called “irreversible lifting of restrictions” at the first howl of “rising cases” in the mainstream media.
And why would’t they?
A politician’s job is not to make you happy, just as it is not to keep you “safe”. It is to get re-elected. And while the public still believes interventions can “control” a virus, politicians are going to continue to promote them when it is demanded of them. Even if they ignore the rules themselves.
After two years of restrictions, the public mood is currently in favour of “living with the virus”. But they do not believe the past two years were a waste. Most people still think masks “must have helped”. They are just happy to take the risk now. They still think lockdowns “saved lives”, but they want to live their lives again, even if doing so makes them a “granny killer”.
The average person has never seen the graphs showing cases rising and falling in neighbouring regions, irrespective of whether one region locked down, mandated hospital-grade masks inside and out, or rolled out the Covid jab.
And nor will they ever. The mainstream media is unlikely to report it.
Of course, none of this might seem to matter now restrictions are being lifted. But the people who believe lockdowns, masks and vaccine mandates “worked” get a vote.
In Canada, that vote is unlikely to go to the only politician who supported the truckers and campaigned against restrictions from day one, Maxime Bernier, of the People’s Party of Canada (PPC). It is going to the main opposition party, the Conservatives – who were still spitting bile about the “Freedom Convoy” and the hated “unvaccinated” even after the lorries rolled into Ottawa demanding an end to Canada's vaccine mandates.
Sensing a shift in public mood, the party, which not only supported vaccine mandates, but introduced them in the provinces they governed, is quickly reinventing itself as the anti-establishment, anti-lockdown party. And now speaks of the vaccinated in soft, conciliatory tones.
The same thing appears to be happening in the UK, where the Conservatives are busy appeasing their critics in the party with a bonfire of the restrictions. Panicked by the loss of North Shropshire – a seat that had voted Conservative for two centuries – in December, backbench MPs rebelled against Johnson’s plans to introduce vaccine passports in England and threatened to bring him down if he attempted to lock Britain down for a fourth time, over Christmas 2021.
Though Johnson may have subsequently sparked a worldwide clambering for the exit, the Conservatives, like their Canadian namesakes, are by no means reformed. They have brought forward a raft of proposed legislation that would see, for instance, journalists imprisoned for “embarrassing” the Government and the Human Rights Act shredded to allow forced vaccinations.
The Government also wants to be able to jail people for spreading “disinformation”, even if, as happened throughout the pandemic, said “misinformation” is true. Meanwhile, those who choose not to take a Covid jab are still unable to work in certain jobs, such healthcare, are forced to undergo punitive and expensive testing to travel and can – and are – being banned entry by businesses.
Clearly, until laws are in place banning digital IDs, “emergency” laws and curtailment of rights, everyone, vaccinated or otherwise, is at risk, as the seizure of Canadian truckers’ bank accounts under “emergency” laws proves.
Sadly, those opposed to mandates underestimate their power.
Although the size of the UK’s unvaccinated or partially vaccinated population is disputed, as pathologist Dr Clare Craig notes, the latest UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has “9.2 million unvaccinated over 18 year olds in their database”, as well as “1.7m who never had a second dose”. What’s more, a further eight million have declined the third jab, which puts them at risk of losing certain “privileges” such as healthcare jobs in future.
This is a huge figure. The total unboosted adult population is about 18.9m or 38 per cent of the adult population. UK elections are won on tiny mandates: Johnson secured a landslide with just over 13m votes, while the seismic Brexit vote was won comfortably with just over 17m ballots.
If organised, the unvaccinated, partially vaccinated could form the largest voting bloc in British history. Add in people who opted to get three jabs but are opposed to lockdowns and mandates and a party dedicated to making lockdowns illegal could rewrite the political map.
In the US, Democrat governors are scrambling to revoke vaccine mandates that disproportionately discriminated against their black, working class and Latino base, ahead of November midterm elections. Meanwhile, entire school boards are being toppled by “Angry Mums” who have mobilised to vote out pro-mask, Democrat-aligned board members.
But last year in Canada, the anti-mandate PPC failed to build on its existing support, thanks largely to voter apathy. The high-profile campaigner Chris Sky, whose video predicting the reintroduction of masks, lockdowns and vaccine passports in 2020 went viral, told his followers to not waste their time on Canada’s federal ballot. His takeaway was that the system is rigged, so do not give it legitimacy. The ‘first past the post’ electoral system makes the ascent of small parties very difficult.
That said, even if forming new anti-restriction parties is difficult, Britain’s 2019 election gives some pointers to how the ousting of Covid’s petty tyrants could be achieved. In that election, widely seen as a second referendum on Brexit, the newly formed Brexit Party cut a last-minute deal with Johnson to stand down all its candidates against Brexit-supporting Conservatives. The result was a new parliament stuffed with MPs voting for Johnson's withdrawal agreement. Of course, the pact was poorly negotiated by Nigel Farage, resulting in the Brexit Party having no say in Brexit negotiations. But it proves the power a new and independent political party can have.
The sceptic movement could, at the very least, consider a tactical voting list endorsing the least-worst candidates in each seat. Alternatively, they could launch a secret de-selection campaign, flooding local Conservative Associations, in particular, with new members, to put pressure on the MPs who did not rebel in December and prevent them from standing again.
If the sceptics do nothing, people will just not vote.
Politicians seem in no rush to end this. Mandates are being expanded in places where leaders do not fear their people. In South Africa, university students are being coerced under the threat of ‘no jab, no uni’. Uganda’s ageing dictator is exploring mandatory vaccinations. In Rwanda, international media are reporting people being handcuffed and injected against their will.
It is clear the only thing that will end the ‘pandemic’ – or rather the oppressive politics exploited in its name – is a reaction from the masses. This may not be so easy for Rwandans. But if you live in a ‘democracy’, it is time to take off your mask and make your voice heard.
Adam Edwards is a British journalist. He is editor of NewsAfrica Magazine.