Rushed vote on lockdowns contemptuous of the British public

Government gets continued lockdown restrictions through House of Commons by making it impossible for the public to contact MP’s before the vote

The government has yet again shown utter contempt for the British people and indeed for the British Parliamentary democracy system.

On Monday 14^th June 2021, the UK Prime Minister announced that the lockdown restrictions he had promised would end on 21^st June would be delayed yet again, this time for another month until 19^th July 2021.

This decision has not only severely disappointed millions of people, it has also caused further extensive damage to the economy, to the health services and to every aspect of life in the UK.

British public wrongly denied a say in lockdowns since the very beginning

The lockdowns first commenced over 15 months ago and have never had a mandate from the UK electorate, either through a General Election or a Referendum. The consequences of lockdowns have probably been the most important the UK has faced in many years, arguably the most important ever. Yet there has been no granting of a say to the British public on this most fundamental of issues. It is nothing short of a national disgrace- that the citizens of this country have been so ignored and so denied basic rights to decide on which direction the UK should take.

There are effectively two options, or sides on how to deal with the covid-19 crisis.

One is the one chosen by the government, which has been shown to be unplanned, erratic, chaotic, indecisive, medically unproven, not proportionate, highly damaging, and costly to the tune of approaching £700 billion.

The other is a non-lockdown path, chosen by a small number of nations in the world, but nations who have basically got their policy right, as they have not suffered the damaging consequences which the lockdown countries, such as the UK have had to endure.

The non- lockdown route never was allowed to be properly debated and this continued to be the case when thousands of medical and scientific professionals signed “The Great Barrington Declaration” delivered to the Prime Minister early last summer, but disgracefully ignored. This gave more reasons for the non- lockdown case and explained options such as “focussed protection.”

Government has grossly misused emergency powers and should never have been granted them

The appalling point about all this that the government, having been granted emergency powers by MP’s back in March 2020, then acted like a standard authoritarian regime and has not let go of those powers since, always finding some hardly plausible reasons for their oppressive powers to continue.

In the process the government has used its power, money and influence to effectively control most of the mainstream media, so its traditional freedom has gone. This means that the public only get one school of thought, the government’s and any dissent from that is simply “ no platformed.”

The fact that the MP’s have fallen for this does not commend them as defenders of British liberties and freedoms. They seem to be as taken in by the government spin as a great number of the public have been, which is very concerning indeed.

On Wednesday evening, at very short notice, the House of Commons was given a vote on extending the lockdown restrictions:

The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Steps and Other Provisions) (England) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2021

Division 28: held on 16 June 2021 at 18:59

The votes were as follows:

461Ayes

60Noes

Question accordingly agreed

This means that the public were given no notice of this vote and therefore no opportunity to lobby their MP’s to vote against this continued bad government and oppressive restrictions on numerous areas of daily life and work.

This rushed vote was entirely designed to prevent MP’s from being contacted by their constituents to ask them to vote against the government proposals.

This is incredibly serious because the government has circumvented democratic procedures and principles in order to get the result they wanted. A complete flouting of democracy. A total contempt for the opinions of the British public.

It is also interesting that the government was well aware that a major lobbying protest was ( and still is)planned for 21^st July outside Parliament, the day when Freedoms were supposed to be handed back to the public.

They decided to avoid that and have their vote too early for opposition to build up.

It is highly likely that if this vote had been delayed even a couple of days, that would have been enough time for numerous business groups and individuals to contact their MP’s and for the government to lose the vote.

This needs to be remembered because this government is capable of acting in an underhand and disreputable way, and it needs to stop.

The votes on Wednesday 16^th June 2021 are explained in the attached link:

https://votes.parliament.uk/Votes/Commons/Division/1053

On Monday 21^st June 2021 the lobbying of MP’s protest will still go ahead so they know how the public feel they should be treated in what should be a democratic society.

There is also a Parliamentary Petition being debated on that day and there will be lobbying on this:

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/328408

Closed petition

Hold a public inquiry into Government contracts granted during Covid-19

“There should be a public inquiry into Government contracts granted during Covid-19. Many contracts have been granted without full and open procurement processes. A public inquiry would be able to ascertain whether contracts had been procured fairly and represent value for money for tax payers.”

This petition is closed All petitions run for 6 months

126,874 signatures

Parliament will debate this petition on 21 June 2021.

You’ll be able to watch online on the UK Parliament YouTube channel.

Campaign of civil disobedience to restrictions commences on 21^st June

However, the main point of the 21^st June protest is that is to not let the government reneging on its word stop the great British public from reclaiming their freedoms, as promised from that day on anyway.

The campaign will now be on the basis of the theme: “ Enough is enough, we do not consent to our freedoms being taken away anymore, and we are reclaiming them.”

The message to the government will now be: “You have no democratic mandate for your oppression and we will not tolerate it any longer. Try arresting us for standing up for our freedoms if you want to try, but there are too many of us, and you will fail.”

The message to businesses , organisations and individuals will be:

“Stand up and take back your rights and take comfort in knowing you will in the company of many, many others.”

Every one person, think of one act of positive non harmful defiance to the authorities to act upon every day.

Start taking part in a national theme of civil disobedience and non- compliance until the government caves in.

They will restore our freedoms if we demand them with action. They will not otherwise, that is pretty clear by now! Otherwise we will campaign for a national UK referendum on the subject.”

How MP’s should have acted

Regarding the vote on extending the restrictions, if the opposition had at least put in an amendment for the debate to be delayed until Monday 21^st, they would have served the public by giving them time to contact their MP’s. They instead decided to serve the government, which is a major let down of the British public.

At least on the main vote the 11 Liberal Democrats voted to abstain rather than blindly follow the government line.

As for the DUP, on this occasion they were a disappointment with only 5 voting against, two in favour and one abstaining.

With the emergency powers and the massive authoritarian powers usurped by the government, it is obvious that the powers of Parliament have been curtailed and it has become a talking shop, almost powerless to control the excesses of an ever more controlling government. Traditional democracy is almost defunct and virtually all the MP’s are responsible for this terrible state of affairs.

It is clear that the only way the long suffering British public is going to get its freedoms back, is simply to take them back and “dam the consequences!”

Anthony Webber

Independent Political Commentator

Founder, National Alliance for Freedom from lockdowns

anthonywebber@cwgsy.net

N.B Here is the Wall of Fame- those who voted against the government

Individual votes by party

Tellers for the Noes

Baker, Mr Steve

Conservative

Wycombe

Doyle-Price, Jackie

Conservative

Thurrock

Members voting No

Conservative (49)

Afriyie, Adam

Conservative

Windsor