More people need to speak out, as Benjamin Franklin once said: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” The Government and mass media have done us a disservice by escalating panic and hysteria over Corvid-19, and in so doing risk the economic future of the majority of the people of the UK, when the data regarding the Corvid-19 pandemic is at best debatable, see the link below I was sent the other day: https://swprs.org/a-swiss-d… Pressure needs to be put on politicians to stop losing their heads and reinstate the hard won freedoms this country has been proud to promote world wide before it is too late to prevent an extremely serious economic crisis at home.
I think Corvid is probably quite accurate: the cleverest of birds, long lived, tool users, hierarchy enforced by violence up to and including infanticide. All in a days work for true believers in a closed society: ie the police, socialists and sadly those parts of our ruling party who know no better.
Thank you Sue Forbes. You have the perfect comment. Love it! Love it.
Fraser Bailey
4 years ago
Thanks Paul, great article. I think most people have had nothing but contempt for the police for some years now. If you are burgled or mugged they are simply not interested. But now, if you go outside for a walk, they are on to you in a flash. As with all arms of the British state, they are useless as they are wicked.
i think “wicked” in the sense of the banality of evil. They are good at doing what they are told. If that means enabling child rape gangs or low level drug dealers with “zombie “knives then that’s OK with them. Given proper leadership they’d probably be OK. Look how the Spanish Guardia changed after 1975
perrywidhalm
4 years ago
A crisis brings out the authoritarian in everyone who wants power over their neighbor. IT’s always been thus …
Bernard
4 years ago
I have found the public’s response to being treated as serfs enlightening.For many years when I have been visiting towns and villages and have seen the memorials for the Great War listing names of people who were shipped overseas to meet their death; I have wondered how was it possible that all those thousands were willing to comply with orders from their masters and now I have an insight into people’s obedient and credulous nature.
Good point. People feel safer being told what to do. But I can think of very worrying precedents for this. George Orwell would be aghast.
Alison Houston
4 years ago
We became a sovereign nation again, on January 31, 2020. The Queen should not have given Her assent to the Coronavirus Bill. She is obliged to uphold Her Coronation Oath and protect our ancient rights and freedoms. A precedent has now been set. Any party with a large majority can put the nation under house arrest on a whim, provided it can get its bill through both houses.
When Lord Sumption was asked about the prorogation, before it happened he was not in favour of it, he agreed with the outcome of the second Miler case, that the Queen should be nothing more than a nodding dog or rubber stamping machine. During his Reith Lectures he did not mention our constitution once, he stated over and over again that all there was was parliament, and judges. This might have been the case, back then, before Brexit, but not now. The Queen is restored to Her true role as Head of State, the breach of sovereignty, that began in 1972, has been repaired, we are once again a Constitutional democracy, only it seems the Queen is being wrongly advised, by those who worked under the old ‘pooled sovereignty’ nonsense and still believe the Head of State has no active role in the politics of the nation.
In theory you are right. But can you imagine what would have happened if the Queen HAD refused her consent? The monarchy have not had that much power since 1688.
I think most people would have cheered Her to the rafters if she had said, I am upholding your freedom, as I am required to do and asking my Government to think again on this Bill. But in the meantime for the health of the nation I require you to choose to sacrifice your own liberty in order to love your neighbours as yourselves.
You and I would have cheered her to the rafters and perhaps a few others on this site, but most people prefer Big Brother and seem to enjoy being ordered about. Worrying and sad.
Lindsay Gatward
4 years ago
Absolutely agree. Also I think we under estimate the social behaviour impact of this confinement even for just this three weeks. If it goes on for six weeks or six months we are into unknown social behaviour territory. And of course the economic/financial world is certain to experience massive unintended consequencies. It is surely inevitable that we will all be exposed to contagion eventually. The logic of the current policy seems to require that we remain isolated until we are all infected which is rather contradictory. The stated aim of this isolation is to spread out the potentially deadly cases so there will be more attention to each case which would look a lot more organised but how much does the extra attention reduce the deadliness of those cases? While so far politically effective how socially and economically cost effective is endless confinement given our curent knowledge plus the unknown but inevitable unintended consequencies?
Arguably the ‘extra attention’ makes a difference in the relatively small but significant number of cases where people would die without receiving it. In addition there are patients suffering from other illnesses who would be deprived of care if the NHS was overwhelmed. But the questions, as you very aptly pointed out, are: (1) for how long will this be economically sustainable? (2) even on the current paternalistic stance, why isn’t the lockdown limited to risk categories? I get the feeling that governments simply respond to voter pressure at this stage. It remains to be seen how their attitude will change when public opinion ends up having enough of it.
mike otter
4 years ago
If the scaremongering and fakery of the so called experts and their anti business supporters were based on truth i am sure we’d gladly give up our freedoms to save the 100s of thousands of lives at stake. However not even the doom mongers believe their own spin. HS2 sites remain open as its an “essential business”. Wilko remains open selling motor oil and small fastenings whilst motor factors are closed. You must remain 2m apart unless you are on the tube trains or at the tills in co-op, tesco etc (though you can be 2m apart in the rest of the store) Anyone who is fooled by this nonsense has already given up their rights to be a free thinking human. If a real killer virus comes along like ebola sadly they will be toast.
nickandyrose
4 years ago
I’ve been speaking out on threads here, Guido Fawkes and the Daily Express against this policy. I can accept being attacked for my views by people frightened for the health of themselves and their loved ones, but so few seem to fully grasp what is at stake here.
It is not the the government has arrogated to itself these powers, but that there is nothing to stop it from doing so in the future. If there is an outbreak of flu next year, will we go through this nonsense again? And you only have to look at the extradition treaty between the UK and US post-9/11, allegedly for extraditing terrorists, to see how power can be abused.
I for one am fearful for the future of our freedoms. I am not, however, frightened of a disease that for the vast majority is no more than a cold.
Calvin Goddard
4 years ago
A quite brilliant article Paul, many thanks for writing. I feel the same way. I’m sure there are many in this land who think likewise. Liberty and the rule of law have been taken for granted; those of us who believe they are one of our treasured possessions must protest as you say, when they are infringed.
Dominic English
4 years ago
The clearest and most concise article I have read on this subject so far. Thanks Paul.
Patrick Cosgrove
4 years ago
I think you’re making a mountain out of a molehill. There’s a 6-monthly review built into the legislation. I’d far rather have someone ordered not to do something that might infect me than be advised not to.
Why do you feel you need to be advised or ordered things? I would have thought that one can inform oneself and act accordingly if one wants to avoid taking risks.
Steven Roberts
4 years ago
Great article. Like your mother, I live in a rural location and haven’t seen a single police officer in 15 years near my house. This week I have been passed, very slowly, when walking by three patrol cars. I agree they have plenty of resources to do a decent job – if only they spent less time looking on Twitter for “hate crimes”.
Scotched Earth
4 years ago
So many start off so edgy”‘I’m going to criticise this institution'”but then surrender with their little apologies: ‘I must stress that this isn’t meant as an attack on individual [whatever].’
Some might have read Art Spiegelman’s Maus, ‘graphic novel’ of his Holocaust survivor father’s memories. P.214 has a few frames showing Vladek having friendly conversations with a camp guard (until guard does duty in inner camp and thereafter is ‘afraid anymore to speak’); p.221 has another ordering Vladek (threatening death) to repair his jackboot and so pleased with the result was he that he gave Vladek ‘a whole sausage’. I must stress that this isn’t meant as an attack on individual SS men”¦
There comes a point when organisations must be judged irredeemably corrupt, and condemned in their entirety. One of the reasons we are where we are is too many excusing the systematic failings of organisations because one or two members are not completely evil; and by so doing, innate evil is provided with cover. I’m sure there are those who join the police with the best of intentions; but when they see the true nature of their job, they either are corrupted and embrace their role, or they leave in disgust (such as the ex-Staffs plod of past CoppersBlog fame).
Any serving police officer should be utterly ashamed; and if they have any integrity, they should walk away. (Perhaps a few hope to subvert their totalitarian mission, just as there were Resistance sympathisers in the French police; as they had to suffer the ‘whips and scorns’ until Liberation allowed Maquis fighters to testify to their good character, so any such Resistance police officers must endure likewise.)
Paul Embery ‘may wonder why the police’s zeal‘ for harassing ordinary ‘cannot be replicated‘ for real criminals; but others are familiar with the late Sam Francis’s explanation of ‘Anarcho-Tyranny’, effectively creating a Police State using criminals as proxies.
Our Public ‘Servants’ have turned on us and become our Masters. Both our Parliament and the Public Sector are the shame of Britain.
spaarks
4 years ago
Completely agree Paul. Here in Northern Ireland (once well known for its police force, the notorious R.U.C.). I’m pleased to say the PSNI are taking a less extreme attitude than in GB. Not so in The Irish Republic, where it is an offence to go out at all if you are over 70. How will the Police here deal with an over-70 who daily highlight is to take her/his wee dog for a walk?
If you keep to the 2 metre minimum distance rule to others, i fail to see the harm in taking ‘exercise’ more than once a day. I’ve walked my dog in the morning and evening for the last six years and i have absolutely no intention of dolng anything different now.
Andy Dawson
4 years ago
Good article. For the sake of accuracy, the Coronavirus Act 2020 by itself gives very little by way of new powers to the police. The rules around the lockdown are set out in the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020. Nothng therein gives the police the power to go poking through peoples’ shopping in the hunt for non-essential items.
Alys Williams
4 years ago
Excellent piece Paul, one of the sanest, best thought out pieces on CV I have read to date in the midst of the hysteria and paranoia.
Scott Allan
4 years ago
Thank you Sue Forbes. You have the perfect comment. Love it!
Joe Smith
4 years ago
Would it be too cynical to suggest that it suits the police to have the population locked down as it makes their life easier?! They certainly seem to be getting carried away, overstepping the law and thinking they have the moral high ground about saving lives. But then next winter, like every other one, they’ll be socialising and not self-isolating when off-duty and the flu virus is circulating round the population and killing people in numbers we usually ignore.
Jamie Gerry
4 years ago
Good time to read the Ray Bradbury short story, “The Pedestrian”, about a many who gets arrested for walking outside …
Scott Allan
4 years ago
I just saw a the police on a news program saying they would start searching shopping baskets for “non-essential items”. This is the beginning of the police state the Labour party has dreamed of. Who is any police officer to determine what shopping items are essential for any citizen.
matthew hilton
4 years ago
Is it possible to be a firefighter and wear a beard? How do you manage with your BA mask old son?
alwyn_kotze
3 years ago
Well you elected them. Rode roughshod over centuries of common law, as you quite correctly pointed out. Managed to do this while achieving one of the highest death tolls in the world, in a rich country, on an island. That takes some doing.
Rhys W
4 years ago
I find this article so misguided as to be reckless. The public have already demonstrated that simply giving strong recommendations doesn’t work, and that a more forceful hand is required for everyone’s benefit. Clearly social stigma against ignoring advice is an useful tool in the public health toolkit, and is to be used as such. I believe in freedom of speech above all but that doesn’t equate to freedom to ‘stick it to the man’ and behave how you like in a global pandemic. It only takes a small minority of 65+ million to break the rules to have disastrous effects.
As a doctor working in secondary care, all the paperwork has been cut, and we’re back to basics putting in all efforts to deal with the most important issue at hand. Those with chronic disease will suffer as monitoring get cut back and best practice slackened. It’s the same with the police. They’ve dropped all but essential duties to get back on the beat and deal with COVID19 in the most effective way they can. They obviously can’t focus on ‘tackling anti-social behaviour’ because they are clearly going to prioritise avoiding preventable deaths. Having a nosey bobby giving you the eye while you walk the dog is not quite as far down the slippery slope of totalitarianism as the author suggests.
People aren’t ‘asking questions of the authorities’ because that’s what happens in a crisis. Do you want a weekly referendum on what to do next? Do you want it all to be a bit more Brexit with no-one able to make a decision for fear of it being the wrong one?
I suspect the author may have a paucity of things to write about whilst being cooped up inside, and could do with a bit of perspective from those seeing the real problems of coronavirus slowly and steadily hit home in hospitals around the country. I think many of those watching their loved ones die would find this reflex reaction against those trying to prevent further deaths pretty appalling.
We here in Britain are at war, like the entire rest of the world. There’ll be a time and a place for all manner of debate at some point but saving lives and giving the health professionals breathing space is the only genuine priority now: stay home as per guidelines or potentially kill a friend or relative (or Mrs Jones over at number 44 who is frail and high risk after a recent total splenectomy). Its about finally ridding ourselves of this accursed Western egotism and personal entitlement and thinking of the safety and welfare of others. (I draw your attention to the Govt drive to get all homeless off the streets, an amazing initiative).
Excellent article!
More people need to speak out, as Benjamin Franklin once said: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
The Government and mass media have done us a disservice by escalating panic and hysteria over Corvid-19, and in so doing risk the economic future of the majority of the people of the UK, when the data regarding the Corvid-19 pandemic is at best debatable, see the link below I was sent the other day: https://swprs.org/a-swiss-d…
Pressure needs to be put on politicians to stop losing their heads and reinstate the hard won freedoms this country has been proud to promote world wide before it is too late to prevent an extremely serious economic crisis at home.
I think Corvid is probably quite accurate: the cleverest of birds, long lived, tool users, hierarchy enforced by violence up to and including infanticide. All in a days work for true believers in a closed society: ie the police, socialists and sadly those parts of our ruling party who know no better.
Thank you Sue Forbes. You have the perfect comment. Love it! Love it.
Thanks Paul, great article. I think most people have had nothing but contempt for the police for some years now. If you are burgled or mugged they are simply not interested. But now, if you go outside for a walk, they are on to you in a flash. As with all arms of the British state, they are useless as they are wicked.
I wouldn’t say they are wicked, but they have become too politicized and simply take their orders from a PC Home Office.
i think “wicked” in the sense of the banality of evil. They are good at doing what they are told. If that means enabling child rape gangs or low level drug dealers with “zombie “knives then that’s OK with them. Given proper leadership they’d probably be OK. Look how the Spanish Guardia changed after 1975
A crisis brings out the authoritarian in everyone who wants power over their neighbor. IT’s always been thus …
I have found the public’s response to being treated as serfs enlightening.For many years when I have been visiting towns and villages and have seen the memorials for the Great War listing names of people who were shipped overseas to meet their death; I have wondered how was it possible that all those thousands were willing to comply with orders from their masters and now I have an insight into people’s obedient and credulous nature.
Slavery does seem to suit many people. Sad to say.
Good point. People feel safer being told what to do. But I can think of very worrying precedents for this. George Orwell would be aghast.
We became a sovereign nation again, on January 31, 2020. The Queen should not have given Her assent to the Coronavirus Bill. She is obliged to uphold Her Coronation Oath and protect our ancient rights and freedoms. A precedent has now been set. Any party with a large majority can put the nation under house arrest on a whim, provided it can get its bill through both houses.
When Lord Sumption was asked about the prorogation, before it happened he was not in favour of it, he agreed with the outcome of the second Miler case, that the Queen should be nothing more than a nodding dog or rubber stamping machine. During his Reith Lectures he did not mention our constitution once, he stated over and over again that all there was was parliament, and judges. This might have been the case, back then, before Brexit, but not now. The Queen is restored to Her true role as Head of State, the breach of sovereignty, that began in 1972, has been repaired, we are once again a Constitutional democracy, only it seems the Queen is being wrongly advised, by those who worked under the old ‘pooled sovereignty’ nonsense and still believe the Head of State has no active role in the politics of the nation.
In theory you are right. But can you imagine what would have happened if the Queen HAD refused her consent? The monarchy have not had that much power since 1688.
I think most people would have cheered Her to the rafters if she had said, I am upholding your freedom, as I am required to do and asking my Government to think again on this Bill. But in the meantime for the health of the nation I require you to choose to sacrifice your own liberty in order to love your neighbours as yourselves.
Extraordinary if a 93 yr old did that . how lucky are Sweden their health policy makers are non Governmental.
You and I would have cheered her to the rafters and perhaps a few others on this site, but most people prefer Big Brother and seem to enjoy being ordered about. Worrying and sad.
Absolutely agree. Also I think we under estimate the social behaviour impact of this confinement even for just this three weeks. If it goes on for six weeks or six months we are into unknown social behaviour territory. And of course the economic/financial world is certain to experience massive unintended consequencies. It is surely inevitable that we will all be exposed to contagion eventually. The logic of the current policy seems to require that we remain isolated until we are all infected which is rather contradictory. The stated aim of this isolation is to spread out the potentially deadly cases so there will be more attention to each case which would look a lot more organised but how much does the extra attention reduce the deadliness of those cases? While so far politically effective how socially and economically cost effective is endless confinement given our curent knowledge plus the unknown but inevitable unintended consequencies?
Arguably the ‘extra attention’ makes a difference in the relatively small but significant number of cases where people would die without receiving it. In addition there are patients suffering from other illnesses who would be deprived of care if the NHS was overwhelmed. But the questions, as you very aptly pointed out, are: (1) for how long will this be economically sustainable? (2) even on the current paternalistic stance, why isn’t the lockdown limited to risk categories? I get the feeling that governments simply respond to voter pressure at this stage. It remains to be seen how their attitude will change when public opinion ends up having enough of it.
If the scaremongering and fakery of the so called experts and their anti business supporters were based on truth i am sure we’d gladly give up our freedoms to save the 100s of thousands of lives at stake. However not even the doom mongers believe their own spin. HS2 sites remain open as its an “essential business”. Wilko remains open selling motor oil and small fastenings whilst motor factors are closed. You must remain 2m apart unless you are on the tube trains or at the tills in co-op, tesco etc (though you can be 2m apart in the rest of the store) Anyone who is fooled by this nonsense has already given up their rights to be a free thinking human. If a real killer virus comes along like ebola sadly they will be toast.
I’ve been speaking out on threads here, Guido Fawkes and the Daily Express against this policy. I can accept being attacked for my views by people frightened for the health of themselves and their loved ones, but so few seem to fully grasp what is at stake here.
It is not the the government has arrogated to itself these powers, but that there is nothing to stop it from doing so in the future. If there is an outbreak of flu next year, will we go through this nonsense again? And you only have to look at the extradition treaty between the UK and US post-9/11, allegedly for extraditing terrorists, to see how power can be abused.
I for one am fearful for the future of our freedoms. I am not, however, frightened of a disease that for the vast majority is no more than a cold.
A quite brilliant article Paul, many thanks for writing. I feel the same way. I’m sure there are many in this land who think likewise. Liberty and the rule of law have been taken for granted; those of us who believe they are one of our treasured possessions must protest as you say, when they are infringed.
The clearest and most concise article I have read on this subject so far. Thanks Paul.
I think you’re making a mountain out of a molehill. There’s a 6-monthly review built into the legislation. I’d far rather have someone ordered not to do something that might infect me than be advised not to.
I am afraid you have fallen hook, line and sinker for all the hysteria.
Why do you feel you need to be advised or ordered things? I would have thought that one can inform oneself and act accordingly if one wants to avoid taking risks.
Great article. Like your mother, I live in a rural location and haven’t seen a single police officer in 15 years near my house. This week I have been passed, very slowly, when walking by three patrol cars. I agree they have plenty of resources to do a decent job – if only they spent less time looking on Twitter for “hate crimes”.
So many start off so edgy”‘I’m going to criticise this institution'”but then surrender with their little apologies: ‘I must stress that this isn’t meant as an attack on individual [whatever].’
Some might have read Art Spiegelman’s Maus, ‘graphic novel’ of his Holocaust survivor father’s memories. P.214 has a few frames showing Vladek having friendly conversations with a camp guard (until guard does duty in inner camp and thereafter is ‘afraid anymore to speak’); p.221 has another ordering Vladek (threatening death) to repair his jackboot and so pleased with the result was he that he gave Vladek ‘a whole sausage’.
I must stress that this isn’t meant as an attack on individual SS men”¦
There comes a point when organisations must be judged irredeemably corrupt, and condemned in their entirety.
One of the reasons we are where we are is too many excusing the systematic failings of organisations because one or two members are not completely evil; and by so doing, innate evil is provided with cover.
I’m sure there are those who join the police with the best of intentions; but when they see the true nature of their job, they either are corrupted and embrace their role, or they leave in disgust (such as the ex-Staffs plod of past CoppersBlog fame).
Any serving police officer should be utterly ashamed; and if they have any integrity, they should walk away. (Perhaps a few hope to subvert their totalitarian mission, just as there were Resistance sympathisers in the French police; as they had to suffer the ‘whips and scorns’ until Liberation allowed Maquis fighters to testify to their good character, so any such Resistance police officers must endure likewise.)
Paul Embery ‘may wonder why the police’s zeal‘ for harassing ordinary ‘cannot be replicated‘ for real criminals; but others are familiar with the late Sam Francis’s explanation of ‘Anarcho-Tyranny’, effectively creating a Police State using criminals as proxies.
Our Public ‘Servants’ have turned on us and become our Masters. Both our Parliament and the Public Sector are the shame of Britain.
Completely agree Paul. Here in Northern Ireland (once well known for its police force, the notorious R.U.C.). I’m pleased to say the PSNI are taking a less extreme attitude than in GB. Not so in The Irish Republic, where it is an offence to go out at all if you are over 70. How will the Police here deal with an over-70 who daily highlight is to take her/his wee dog for a walk?
“notorious” ?
If you keep to the 2 metre minimum distance rule to others, i fail to see the harm in taking ‘exercise’ more than once a day. I’ve walked my dog in the morning and evening for the last six years and i have absolutely no intention of dolng anything different now.
Good article.
For the sake of accuracy, the Coronavirus Act 2020 by itself gives very little by way of new powers to the police. The rules around the lockdown are set out in the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020. Nothng therein gives the police the power to go poking through peoples’ shopping in the hunt for non-essential items.
Excellent piece Paul, one of the sanest, best thought out pieces on CV I have read to date in the midst of the hysteria and paranoia.
Thank you Sue Forbes. You have the perfect comment. Love it!
Would it be too cynical to suggest that it suits the police to have the population locked down as it makes their life easier?! They certainly seem to be getting carried away, overstepping the law and thinking they have the moral high ground about saving lives. But then next winter, like every other one, they’ll be socialising and not self-isolating when off-duty and the flu virus is circulating round the population and killing people in numbers we usually ignore.
Good time to read the Ray Bradbury short story, “The Pedestrian”, about a many who gets arrested for walking outside …
I just saw a the police on a news program saying they would start searching shopping baskets for “non-essential items”. This is the beginning of the police state the Labour party has dreamed of. Who is any police officer to determine what shopping items are essential for any citizen.
Is it possible to be a firefighter and wear a beard? How do you manage with your BA mask old son?
Well you elected them. Rode roughshod over centuries of common law, as you quite correctly pointed out. Managed to do this while achieving one of the highest death tolls in the world, in a rich country, on an island. That takes some doing.
I find this article so misguided as to be reckless. The public have already demonstrated that simply giving strong recommendations doesn’t work, and that a more forceful hand is required for everyone’s benefit. Clearly social stigma against ignoring advice is an useful tool in the public health toolkit, and is to be used as such. I believe in freedom of speech above all but that doesn’t equate to freedom to ‘stick it to the man’ and behave how you like in a global pandemic. It only takes a small minority of 65+ million to break the rules to have disastrous effects.
As a doctor working in secondary care, all the paperwork has been cut, and we’re back to basics putting in all efforts to deal with the most important issue at hand. Those with chronic disease will suffer as monitoring get cut back and best practice slackened. It’s the same with the police. They’ve dropped all but essential duties to get back on the beat and deal with COVID19 in the most effective way they can. They obviously can’t focus on ‘tackling anti-social behaviour’ because they are clearly going to prioritise avoiding preventable deaths. Having a nosey bobby giving you the eye while you walk the dog is not quite as far down the slippery slope of totalitarianism as the author suggests.
People aren’t ‘asking questions of the authorities’ because that’s what happens in a crisis. Do you want a weekly referendum on what to do next? Do you want it all to be a bit more Brexit with no-one able to make a decision for fear of it being the wrong one?
I suspect the author may have a paucity of things to write about whilst being cooped up inside, and could do with a bit of perspective from those seeing the real problems of coronavirus slowly and steadily hit home in hospitals around the country. I think many of those watching their loved ones die would find this reflex reaction against those trying to prevent further deaths pretty appalling.
Well put.
We here in Britain are at war, like the entire rest of the world. There’ll be a time and a place for all manner of debate at some point but saving lives and giving the health professionals breathing space is the only genuine priority now: stay home as per guidelines or potentially kill a friend or relative (or Mrs Jones over at number 44 who is frail and high risk after a recent total splenectomy). Its about finally ridding ourselves of this accursed Western egotism and personal entitlement and thinking of the safety and welfare of others. (I draw your attention to the Govt drive to get all homeless off the streets, an amazing initiative).
Everything else should wait. For the time being.