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Coercive measures against millions of British people in pubs and park politics

The move had been expected for days, and as the Monday progressed, the British public began discussing the ramifications of what would come in the evening. In fact, at 8:30 p.m. local time, the BBC actually broadcast a recorded speech by Prime Minister Boris Johnson that he delivered after a Security Cabinet meeting. Previously, he had always spoken freely at his press conferences and regularly irritated his statements; this time his advisors apparently didn’t want to take any chances.

No head of government would be happy to do that, he said, but now it is time: a far-reaching exit restriction, the closing of all shops except grocery stores and pharmacies, the restriction on travel to essential trips to work – and, a small concession to them, are ordered Citizens: one fitness activity permit per day.

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The police, Johnson said, have the right to stop and reprimand citizens. In the afternoon the lower house had debated a corresponding law; it should be decided immediately. The prime minister justified the country’s measures to lag behind other countries in order to protect the British health system. If too many people were sick at the same time, the hospitals would be overwhelmed and many people would have to die.

The British government had long hesitated to enforce such coercive measures; Johnson had repeatedly pointed out that Great Britain was a liberal society. The government had initially followed the herd immunity tactic with the highest possible number of infections so that the number of people who were immune to the virus increased as soon as possible. However, the course was changed about a week ago because, according to studies, up to 500,000 people could have been killed.

Before the weekend, the prime minister had said on relevant journalist questions, such as how the government wanted to enforce the so-called social distancing, the distance necessary to prevent the transmission of the Cornona virus, that he believed that the British were reasonable and sensible enough . However, the opposite was the case: after weeks of bad weather and ambiguous messages from Downing Street, millions of Britons flocked to parks, beaches, nature reserves and for shopping. The subways in London were full on Monday morning. Doctors and authorities begged people to adhere to the guidelines; but that was not enough.

Britain officially had 6,500 infected and 335 dead at the beginning of the week. However, since most patients do not report to doctors or hospitals at all and few people with symptoms are actually tested, the number of unreported cases is likely to be much higher.

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