Never forget: George Orwell was an Englishman – even if his early, post-WW2, now widely famous and extremely dystopian sci-fi was definitely born in the wake of the 1940s and the trauma of the war.
But the things going on in his homeland today bring into question if this visionary might not have merely been “projecting” some seeds of the authoritarianism he saw around him, onto some more simple, and comfortable, targets, like the nascent Communist bloc over in the East of Europe of the time.
Well – that human rights-suppressing bloc has now been gone for decades – but instead, in this day and age, a woman in England’s Lake District is reporting that local police are basically going wild in an attempt to control coronavirus lockdown decrees (often erroneously described in media as “laws”) by making threats of money fines and generally disturbing people’s everyday lives and peace of mind.
According to the Lancashire woman – whom the outlet reporting on the case, LancsLive, choose to keep anonymous – the police threatened to fine her about $200 for posting a picture on Instagram of her walk with her significant other and their dog on New Year’s Eve, in the famed nature reserve. After all – if we are all banned from partying – a walk in nature surely can’t offend?
Wrong. Although the area all but lends itself to “safe” walks in any kind of pandemic, the woman had the misfortune and faced the stress of being contacted by the police shortly after posting her snapshots on Instagram, and being informed that she broke Covid rules and would have to pay the money fine. (The threats in the end never materialized.)
The story gets more fine-grained, but not less informative: apparently, not only were some people of Instagram happy to report her walk on New Year’s Eve to “Big Brother” – not only did the police initially respond to this – but they also contacted her mother.
Other reports pinpoint the dire state of civil liberties and proper legal protections in the land of Orwell, as The Guardian writes the newest UK lockdown rules also include a call from police chiefs to be allowed “forced entry into homes of suspected Covid ‘law’ breakers.”
