Thread by @docrussjackson

I was struck by this sentence, written by Andrew Neil, calling for penalties for the unvaccinated:

"I'm not impressed by those who claim this is an egregious assault on our freedoms. Liberty is not the same as unbridled licence to do what you want, which is the road to anarchy."

Functional democracies have to find the right balance between on one hand, maximum freedom for individuals, & on the other, sensible measures to protect decent people from those who would cheat, lie, exploit, manipulate or use violence or intimidation to satisfy their desires.

Over recent decades, the Right has lurched toward 'free-market libertarianism', of the kind that reduces the influence of the state on economic matters, yet increases the repressive power of the state by abandoning rules, rights & regulations designed to protect citizens.

This lurch toward unbridled free-market capitalism, pushed by almost every grotesquely wealthy media baron, corporate CEO, right-wing Government & free-market think tank on earth brought us the catastrophic financial crash & is pushing the earth toward cataclysmic climate change.

As we can see in Britain, the Govt's cynical libertarian attitude, exploitation of good faith, & utter contempt for rules, regulations, human rights, codes of conduct & even truth itself, is resulting in division, anger, frustration & the breakdown of trust in democracy itself.

Imho, the Govt's cynical, exploitative & dangerously irresponsible lurch toward right-wing libertarian populism - of the kind broadly supported by Andrew Neil - is the REAL "egregious assault on our freedoms. Liberty is not the same as unbridled licence to do what you want".

"Freedom".