Masked Extremism

Monday March 8, 2021

Today sees schools in England reopen for all pupils after their education and daily lives have been interrupted by the ongoing saga of lockdowns. A reminder; it is now almost a year since we were told by the UK government that the country needed ‘three weeks to flatten the curve’ of COVID-19.

Yet we are still bidden by the diktat of the state to meekly acquiesce to the removal of our long-held and cherished rights and freedoms, including that of our children to be educated, to enjoy their youthful and comparative absence of responsibilities, to freely partake in whatever activities take their fancy and – to breathe freely and allow their developing young bodies to grow.

Another reminder; all the most restrictive acts of governments, of all shapes and sizes regardless of political creed, all those instructions that remove freedom of choice, are preceded by the words, ‘For Your Safety…’

Safety of the individual is of course, one of the responsibilities of government. But our leaders, elected by us as they are, cannot meet that responsibility by continually shutting the people they serve away or by demanding that the means by which we express ourselves, live and breathe – our faces – are covered up, like some unwanted, undesirable thing that is to be avoided.

Our children need to learn many things as they grow up. One of them is how to use their facial expressions, how to breathe in and out; how to converse and use language properly. They cannot do that, leave alone allow their lungs to develop and their immune systems likewise, by wearing a mask all day every day.

As the Prime Minister himself once said, “Not in classrooms because that is clearly nonsensical – you can’t teach with face coverings; you can’t expect people to learn with face coverings.”