An interesting section of Hansard (22nd September 2020 - vol. 680, column 814) that was brought to my attention today:
I thank the Prime Minister for his statement. He is
right to say that it is the co-operation and good sense of the British
public that has seen the spread of this difficult outbreak curtailed. My
constituents will continue to do exactly what is required of them, but
the truth is that Cornwall has a very low rate of covid-19, and that has
been the case throughout. What message of hope can the Prime Minister
give to teenagers going to schools and colleges who are being asked to
wear face masks when not in class, to churchgoers who have been blocked
from freedom of worship, and to businesses that have yet to open and are
continually frustrated from doing so?
Churchgoers will continue to have freedom of worship
under the proposals. We want life, as far as we possibly we can, to keep
going as normally as possible. We want the economy to keep moving. The
best hope I can offer my hon. Friend’s constituents, for whom he fights
so valiantly, is that we get this virus back under control, take the
country forward and keep the economy moving. That is the best prospect
for our country.
Does the Prime Minister think that the reason Germany
and Italy have far lower covid rates than us, with life continuing more
or less normally, might be that they have locally and publicly run test
and trace services that actually work?
No, I don’t, and I think the continual attacks on
local test and trace and what NHS Test and Trace has done are
undermining and unnecessary. Actually, there is an important difference
between our country and many other countries around the world: our
country is a freedom-loving country. If we look at the history of this
country over the past 300 years, virtually every advance, from free
speech to democracy, has come from this country. It is very difficult to
ask the British population uniformly to obey guidelines in the way that
is necessary. What we are saying today is that collectively—I am
answering the right hon. Gentleman’s question
directly—the way to do that is for us all to follow the guidelines,
which we will strictly enforce, and get the R down. That is the way
forward.
This semester, I've been teaching freedom (as part of our introduction to political theory module) and will be teaching about pandemic responses (as part of my ethics of public policy module). This exchange is relevant to both.
