Protesters Brutally Beaten And Arrested By Police On UK “Freedom Day”
Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,
People in London protesting the fact that so called “freedom day” is anything but that, were met with even harsher police responses than during lockdown Monday, with chaotic footage emerging of beatings and arrests.
The action predominantly took place in Parliament Square, with protesters chanting “arrest Boris Johnson” and “shame on police.”
It didn’t take long for the massive gathering to devolve into this:
A heavy police presence, combined with a sweltering hot day made for the perfect storm:
In total 11 arrests were made, according to reports.
Footage of the protests was even censored from social media, prompting one outlet to suggest that the ‘conspiracy theorists might be right’.
The huge protest came after it was announced, on “freedom day”, that vaccine passports would be mandatory to enter “crowded venues” from the end of September.
In addition, the government indicated that the system would be expanded to apply not only to venues, but in workplaces, including offices.
The London protests follow similar scenes in France and Greece, where the government have announced plans to exclude the unvaccinated from society.
French President Emmanuel Macron has been forced to back down on imposing mandatory vaccine passports for entry to shopping malls after several volatile nationwide protests.
As we previously noted, while the UK government has claimed to have lifted restrictions, the use of masks and social distancing continues, as does government tracking and forced quarantines, along with the aforementioned introduction of vaccine passports.
It’s the complete antithesis of freedom.
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So Much For “Freedom Day”: UK Health Authorities Bar Unvaccinated Patrons From Nightclubs
Thousands of young Britons celebrated “Freedom Day” by piling into nightclubs that had been closed for nearly a year-and-a-half, indulging in the kind of nightlife activities they once took for granted. Unfortunately for those who haven’t been “fully vaccinated”, the UK’s vaccine’s minister Nadhim Zahawi said Monday that a negative coronavirus test will “no longer be sufficient” proof that a person is COVID safe.
Zahawi said a negative coronavirus test would soon “no longer be sufficient” proof that a person was COVID-safe, and instead they urged nightclubs and other businesses to use the NHS COVID pass, which contains their vaccination status. Public health authorities will be monitoring to see how many businesses voluntarily follow this ‘recommendation’. Over the next few weeks, “we will be keeping a close watch on how it is used by venues and reserve the right to mandate if necessary.”
But pretty soon, providing proof of vaccination status might be a requirement in the UK, just like it’s becoming a requirement in other parts of Europe like France and Greece.
“By the end of September everyone aged 18 and over will have the chance to receive full vaccination and the additional two weeks for that protection to really take hold.”
“So at that point we plan to make full vaccination a condition of entry to nightclubs and other venues where large crowds gather.”
“Proof of a negative test will no longer be sufficient.”
As we have reported, starting in August, members of the French public will need to carry around a special vaccine pass, according to an edict from President Emmanuel Macron.
Authorities hope barring un-vaccinated from places like nightclubs and concert venues will help encourage more young people to accept the vaccine.
Speaking to the press on Monday, PM Boris Johnson said 35% of 18-to-30-year-olds (roughly three million people) were unvaccinated. He urged young people to get fully-jabbed, saying it is the “right thing to help get back the freedoms you love”.
He added: “I would remind everybody that some of life’s most important pleasures and opportunities are likely to be increasingly dependent on vaccination.”
British health authorities aren’t the only ones who are moving to crack down as the UK sees among the highest rates of spread for the Delta variant: In the US, the State Department warned Monday afternoon that it had raised its travel advisory for the UK to “do not visit.”
England’s “Freedom Day” Dulled By Looming Food Shortages As “Ping-Demic” Worsens
In keeping with Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s promise, England lifted its last remaining COVID-linked restrictions on movement and business at midnight on Monday, finally allowing people to move about more or less freely, even as new COVID cases are climbing in the UK and much of the EU.
Despite the surge in new cases across the UK (which has been overwhelmingly driven by the Delta variant), instances of deaths and hospitalizations have climbed only slightly.
Over the weekend, the number of new daily cases climbed above 50K for the first time since January… but deaths remain de minimus (and that is with a 2 month lag from cases picking up)…
Across England, work from home guidance has been removed, along with the legal obligation to wear face masks in public places. Some “key protections” will remain, however. People who test positive for Covid-19 or are contacted by NHS Test and Trace will have to self-isolate, as will those arriving from amber and red-list countries.
BoJo’s decision has also infuriated some public health “experts”, who have in turn condemned Boris Johnson’s lifting of most COVID legal restrictions as “a threat to the world.” The UK now has the third-highest number of active COVID cases outside Brazil and Indonesia.
Others have complained – with good reason – that “Freedom Day” isn’t quite living up to its name, with one critic calling it “all mouth, no trousers”.
And not without reason. As the economy is supposedly reopening, a deluge of mandatory quarantine orders have been handed down to coworkers and family members of the infected have created serious problems for the British economy. The British press is calling it the “ping-demic” – a reference to being “pinged” by the NHS test-and-trace system. Some are worried that it could soon lead to food shortages, the Evening Standard said.
Tim Morris, chief executive of the UK Major Ports Group, called what has been dubbed the “ping-demic” as the most “significant threat to ports’ resilience we have seen yet…
“If the current trajectory of absences continues without the Government taking any action, there has to be a risk of disruption to important supply chains, including food.”
The NHS T&T app sent a record 520,194 alerts last week. Each of those represents a person (often a worker) who must quarantine for up to ten days after reportedly coming into “close contact” with someone who has tested positive.
Meat processors are saying 1 in 10 of their workforce were being told to self-isolate by the app, a development that could require firms “to start shutting down production lines altogether”.
Even BoJo has been impacted: Only hours “Freedom Day” began, the PM was himself forced to go into self-isolation after his government’s health secretary tested positive.
As Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid pointed out in a note to clients published Monday morning, it’s becoming “increasingly difficult” in the UK to have a conversation with anybody who disagrees with your views on ending the COVID lockdown.
Those for suggest that with all the vulnerable groups fully vaccinated and every adult having been offered at least one jab then we have to start learning to live with the virus and the summer is the best place to start. To delay would only postpone cases and risks the peak occurring in winter when the health service is usually more stretched. Mental health considerations also come into the equation as does the still relatively low death rate. Those against will suggest that fully reopening now after the recent surge in cases could soon lead to high hospitalisations and genuinely risk pressurising the health service. They would also argue that new variants could emerge with such a wide prevalence of cases and could also create huge numbers of long covid cases and more deaths than should occur. Anyway, the world will be watching the U.K. experiment with huge interest. It could show a pathway back towards normality or it could be a warning to even heavily vaccinated countries that covid will be a problem for a decent length of time still.
Breaking down the numbers the big growth area over this period has been males aged 15-40. It’s the first time in the pandemic that there’s been a notable gender split.
The day has been nicknamed “Freedom Day”, and for many it didn’t disappoint. As nightclubs opened their doors and dancefloors for the first time in 16 months, young people packed into establishments to celebrate. In a message recorded at the PM’s country house, Chequers, where he is spending is quarantine, Johnson urged caution even as he said it was time to move away from government rules to a new era of personal responsibility: “If we don’t do it now we’ve got to ask ourselves, when will we ever do it?”
Indeed!!
