Posted on 03/25/2020 4:11:20 PM PDT by gattaca
Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch, on the alarming authoritarianism of the government’s new powers.
The Coronavirus Bill, having sailed through the House of Commons, is expected to become law today. The Bill gives the government and the authorities unprecedented new powers, unheard of in a democracy during peacetime. Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch, has warned that these powers are unreasonably draconian, and could be here to stay long after the threat of the virus has dissipated. spiked caught up with Carlo to find out more.
spiked: What’s wrong with the Coronavirus Bill?
Silkie Carlo: This is a 329-page bill conferring extraordinary powers to the executive, which is being rushed through parliament in just three days. This is completely unprecedented. It leaves us with the greatest loss of liberty that we have probably ever had in this country on the back of one piece of legislation in peacetime.
The duration of the powers is one of the first things that stands out. The bill was drafted to allow its powers to last for two years – an extremely long period of time for such extreme emergency powers. Big Brother Watch ran a campaign over the weekend saying two years is too long and thousands of people emailed their MPs. The government has conceded an amendment which allows for a review after six months. But the way this has been phrased means that, essentially, the government can come back in six months and say that the powers need to continue. It would require parliament to vote against the government to try to get rid of the bill. Obviously, the numbers in parliament are really stacked against that at the moment.
If we are honest with ourselves, these powers are going to be here to stay. The virus isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Crisis follows crisis. The slippery slope might be an overused term, but it is very, very difficult to reverse the handing over of such extraordinary powers.
How everyday speech became a crime PODCAST How everyday speech became a crime SPIKED The other concerning thing is that we already have structures in place to deal with emergencies, namely the Civil Contingencies Act. Under the Civil Contingencies Act, government can lay regulations which have to be reviewed within seven days, but they can last for up to 30 days. And that is an appropriate mechanism for measures like arbitrary detention powers or any powers which you would never normally find acceptable in a democracy.
But that Act hasn’t been used. As Matt Hancock said repeatedly yesterday in the house, there is no plan to use that Act. This Coronavirus Bill actually comes from an earlier draft of an influenza pandemic bill and so this is not simply a product of making do in the circumstances. Obviously, everyone in parliament and everyone in government is faced with extraordinary circumstances. But the approach they have chosen is really worrying.
I was relieved to see lots of MPs in parliament raising questions, including Conservative backbenchers, asking why the Civil Contingencies Act hadn’t been used. And the response given by the government was, I’m afraid, simply not true. Jacob Rees-Mogg said the coronavirus pandemic doesn’t qualify as an emergency under the Contingencies Act because it has been known about for too long. But that is just not the case. David Davis asked the Speaker’s Counsel, which gives legal advice to the Commons, whether that was actually the case. And the Speaker’s Counsel said unequivocally that the powers under the Civil Contingencies Act – which was written by the Counsel – are absolutely appropriate for the current emergency. I think that the Speaker’s Counsel note is going to be a very significant document in the months and years to come, unfortunately.
spiked: What powers does the bill have?
A disaster without precedent RECOMMENDED A disaster without precedent FRANK FUREDI Carlo: The standout thing in the Coronavirus Bill is its detention powers. The bill confers arbitrary detention powers to the police, immigration officers and public-health officials. They can detain and isolate ‘potentially’ infectious people. Potentially infectious people can be literally anyone. As we have seen from the government reports, up to 80 per cent of the public could be infected with coronavirus eventually, many of whom will be asymptomatic. There is no explanation as to how the authorities will determine whether someone is potentially infected. For all intents and purposes, it allows for arbitrary and indefinite detention. Any member of the public, including children, could be forcibly detained, isolated, quarantined in an as yet unidentified location. It also enables authorities to forcibly take biological samples from people for testing.
I don’t want to suggest that the powers will be used in as apocalyptic a way as the phrasing would permit. But of course, it would still be the height of naivety to hand these powers to the authorities, especially in a time of crisis in which people are acting rapidly and reactively. In a democracy, you do not normally give those kinds of extraordinary powers without the bare minimum of safeguards or at least explanations.
Another major power in the bill is around dispersal. Under the Coronavirus Bill, authorities can shut down events, gatherings, premises, and not only force people to leave and go into isolation facilities, but they will also have the power to make people stay in a place.
There is also an extension of detention powers under the Mental Health Act. So people can now be sectioned on the advice of a single doctor rather than two doctors, as is currently the case. This is at a time when the population is under undue psychological pressure. Other parts of the bill allow social-care standards to be drastically relaxed, so we will see people suffering more.
One of the worrying differences between the Coronavirus Bill and the emergency powers under the Civil Contingencies Act is that there is no exemption for political gatherings or political assemblies. When we are talking about a massive expansion of ministerial powers for two years, and a huge step-change to our politics, that is really worrying. It would not be difficult to amend the bill to have an exemption for industrial action and strikes, as exists in the Civil Contingencies Act, because obviously this is where there is the most obvious potential for abuses of power. We as a public must, should we need to, be able to say, in several months’ time, that the government has got it wrong, that we want a different approach, that the coronavirus measures aren’t right or they are not being used in the right way. Our fundamental ability to express that could be taken away.
More at link
Forget it, Jake - it’s the Limeys.
“Coronavirus Bill: The greatest loss of liberty in our history (this is in the UK)”
How can they lose it when they don’t have liberty in the first place?
Gee, ya think? I mean, who could have seen that coming? And here on FR, we have people cheering on our government as it runs around doing exactly the same thing.
Wow,at least we don’t have the U.K. Corona Bill. I feel so much better now.
My youngest cousin just moved there with her husband, and she’s pregnant now. Both are in medical field, though my cousin is in research, and both were born in the USA.
I wonder how she feels about living there now?
Not a free country. Was it ever? I think there was a revolution in America because of that.
Successful therapy against Covid-19 virus from New York State:
Dr. Vladimir (Zev) Zelenko Board Certified Family Practitioner 501 Rt 208, Monroe, NY 10950 845-238-0000
March 23, 2020
To all medical professionals around the world:
My name is Dr. Zev Zelenko and I practice medicine in Monroe, NY. For the last 16 years, I have cared for approximately 75% of the adult population of Kiryas Joel, which is a very close knit community of approximately 35,000 people in which the infection spread rapidly and unchecked prior to the imposition of social distancing.
As of today my team has tested approximately 200 people from this community for Covid-19, and 65% of the results have been positive. If extrapolated to the entire community, that means more than 20,000 people are infected at the present time. Of this group, I estimate that there are 1500 patients who are in the high-risk category (i.e. >60, immunocompromised, comorbidities, etc).
Given the urgency of the situation, I developed the following treatment protocol in the pre-hospital setting and have seen only positive results:
1. Any patient with shortness of breath regardless of age is treated.
2. Any patient in the high-risk category even with just mild symptoms is treated.
3. Young, healthy and low risk patients even with symptoms are not treated (unless their circumstances change and they fall into category 1 or 2).
My out-patient treatment regimen is as follows:
1. Hydroxychloroquine 200mg twice a day for 5 days
2. Azithromycin 500mg once a day for 5 days
3. Zinc sulfate 220mg once a day for 5 days
The rationale for my treatment plan is as follows. I combined the data available from China and South Korea with the recent study published from France (sites available on request). We know that hydroxychloroquine helps Zinc enter the cell. We know that Zinc slows viral replication within the cell. Regarding the use of azithromycin, I postulate it prevents secondary bacterial infections. These three drugs are well known and usually well tolerated, hence the risk to the patient is low.
Since last Thursday, my team has treated approximately 350 patients in Kiryas Joel and another 150 patients in other areas of New York with the above regimen.
Of this group and the information provided to me by affiliated medical teams, we have had ZERO deaths, ZERO hospitalizations, and ZERO intubations. In addition, I have not heard of any negative side effects other than approximately 10% of patients with temporary nausea and diarrhea.
In sum, my urgent recommendation is to initiate treatment in the outpatient setting as soon as possible in accordance with the above. Based on my direct experience, it prevents acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), prevents the need for hospitalization and saves lives.
With much respect,
Dr. Zev Zelenko
cc: President Donald J. Trump; Mr. Mark Meadows, Chief of Staff
Video at Link
8 posted on 3/24/2020, 5:02:30 PM by Candor7 ((Obama Fascism)http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2009/05/barack_obam_the_quintessentia_1.html))
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