Of all the infuriating catchphrases the government have shoved down our throats during the pandemic, this one has to be the worst.
From Monday, legal requirements to wear a mask in enclosed spaces will disappear… however, they “expect and recommend” that we will still wear them. It’s what they want us to do, what they predict we will do, but not what they are telling us to do. So you don’t have to wear a mask, but wear a mask, OK?
“I’ve no doubt that’s what people will do,” said Boris Johnson, a man who had just been photographed in a car with three other people, all wearing masks, while he didn’t.
Do as I say… sorry, expect and recommend, not as I do.
Will you be wearing your face mask after Freedom Day on July 19? Let us know in the comments below
We are now in a race against time. There are just five days for Johnson and his government to do something they’ve become well accustomed to over the last year and a half – perform a massive U-turn.
They’ve got this catastrophically wrong, and they need to sort it out before it’s too late. They need to take immediate action so that wearing masks in enclosed spaces remains law after July 19. Infections, as we are all aware, are raging at the moment, everyone seems to know someone who has coronavirus. People will understand. The majority will be hugely relieved.
Ploughing on regardless, ignoring the scientists, and the doctors, and all the opinion polls would be reckless, idiotic and, most importantly, dangerous. This is, after all, genuinely, without even a tiny shred of hyperbole, a matter of life and death. Removing the mask law is a mistake that will definitely prove fatal in some cases. Maybe the case of someone you love. How much clearer can a situation be that that?
As LBC’s Ben Kentish said to Boris Johnson at the Downing Street press conference yesterday: “When we have rules in all areas of public life designed to ensure people act in a way to protect others – speeding, drink driving, facing fines of thousands of pounds for dropping litter – why in the middle of pandemic do you think wearing a mask should be one of the few areas of public life where people are expected to behave a certain way rather than told to do so?”
Of course Johnson waffled on, but he didn’t have an answer to that, because there IS no answer to that.
This is madness. Make it stop. PLEASE.
