Coronavirus restrictions: are they legal

[karatestu]

The people who die from this are on the whole not the ones who deserve to.

[Fretless]

The people who die from this are on the whole not the ones who deserve to.

Harvey Weinstein ?

[Fretless]

Just seen the video images of the UK suffering huge traffic jams as people were trying to get the last burgers from McDonalds.

Hilarious!

[Fretless]

On a more serious note:

I am calling my parents in the UK every day or 2. They are both over 80 and still, fortunately, in good(ish) health.
But I do worry.

The message is to everyone - be considerate to each other.
Respect and politeness are powerful things in this time.

[Lindsayt]

I don't care if they are legal or not. Unless you have been living under a rock and not seen the damage this virus is doing if allowed to spread quickly unchecked. Why would you even question the legality? This is to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed and being unable to cope with a huge spike of infected people all at one time causing people to die unnecessarily. Wake up man!

Historical precedents.

I'm reading James Comey's A higher Loyalty now.
I watched Vice a week ago.

In the wake of 9/11 the Bush administration put into place a number of policies that were initially approved by the American Justice Department as legal. These policies were in the war to fight terror, to save American lives. 2 years after these policies were introduced, the Justice Department looked at the legality of them. And found that they were illegal in a number of areas. Senior people in the Bush Administration pushed back against the findings of the Justice Department.

The illegality of the policies revolved around the treatment of detainees at locations outside the USA. And the use of torture.

What you had was an abuse of power by the Bush Administration.

At the time, I dare say the majority of Americans would have approved of the torture.
I cannot agree with their opinion on this. And the Justice Department, at least for a while, quite rightly deemed that what the CIA was doing was illegal.

History shows us that politicians can use times of emergency to abuse their power.

Nazi Germany is another example. Napoleonic France is another.

I am fully awake on this.

A time of emergency should not and never should be a good enough reason for politicians to do anything illegal.

[valvesRus]

You must have too little to do Lindsay. Are you helping any people in your neighbourhood ?

If everyone had acted sensibly we would not need these restrictions.

[CN211276]

On a more serious note:

I am calling my parents in the UK every day or 2. They are both over 80 and still, fortunately, in good(ish) health.
But I do worry.

The message is to everyone - be considerate to each other.
Respect and politeness are powerful things in this time.

My other half's parents are in their 80s and in Kenya where they do not have a health service like ours. There has been panic and someone who coughed in public was stoned to death by a mob.

[savvypaul]

A time of emergency should not and never should be a good enough reason for politicians to do anything illegal.

+1

[Lindsayt]

You must have too little to do Lindsay. Are you helping any people in your neighbourhood ?

If everyone had acted sensibly we would not need these restrictions.

Although what you say is fair comment.

[Daniel Quinn]

The police enact legislation. As long as their is legislation it's legal.