Ten year jail threat for quarantine law-breakers defies belief – Bill Carmichael

“Oi Ginger, what are you in for this time?”

“Five years for armed robbery of a post office. How about you, Freddie?”

“Oh, four years for the assault of my ex-girlfriend. But I’ll be out in two. How about you, Shorty?”

“I stabbed a bloke in a pub. He deserved it. He was looking at my bird. I got five years for wounding because it’s not my first offence.”

All three look at their fourth 
cellmate.

“And what are you in for mate?”

“Me? Oh I went on a mini-break to the Algarve.”

Puzzlement all round.

“Did you rob a bank to pay for it?”

“No, nothing like that, it is just that when I came back I fibbed on the official form about where I had been, because I couldn’t afford to take 10 days off work to go into quarantine.”

“And what sentence did m’lud hand down for that heinous offence?”

“Well, he said I was getting off lightly because it’s my first offence – so I just have to serve 10 years.”

“Ten years?!”

If you need any evidence that the world has gone stark, staring mad look no further than the announcement by Health Secretary Matt Hancock this week that people who tell porkies about where they have been on holiday could face an entire decade behind bars. That’s right – 10 whole years.

Look, before anyone accuses me of downplaying the crisis, I know the virus is deadly, and we must stop the spread of new variants, and that people who break the rules designed to protect us all are stupid and irresponsible and deserve punishment.

But 10 years in jail? Seriously?

As the former Supreme Court Judge Lord Sumption pointed out this week, someone would likely spend less time behind bars if they were convicted of some serious sex offences against children.

In a newspaper article he wrote: “Ten years is the maximum sentence for threats to kill, non-fatal poisoning or indecent assault.

“Does Mr Hancock really think that non-disclosure of a visit to Portugal is worse than the large number of violent firearms offences or sexual offences involving minors, for which the maximum is seven years?”

Lord Sumption concluded that Mr Hancock was losing his connection with reality, and it’s hard to argue with that.

In fact the whole political class seems to have become unmoored from reality. They have spent so long bossing us all about during the pandemic that they are beginning to enjoy it and want to boss us about even more.

And remember these draconian moves are coming from a supposedly freedom-loving Conservative government. The way they are adopting deeply authoritarian policies with such lip-smacking relish is very disturbing.

Jailing someone for 10 years for filling in a bureaucratic form incorrectly is the sort of behaviour we expect from tyrannies such as China, Russia and Iran – not a free and independent country like the UK.

Let’s give credit where it is due – the Government has played an absolute blinder in vaccinating more than 12 million people so far, with a target of 15 million on track, including the most vulnerable, by next week.

This is streets ahead of most other Western countries, including the crumbling EU empire, which has experienced a disastrous roll-out of the vaccine that will cost many thousands of lives, and UK Ministers deserve a hearty pat on the back for this stunning success.

But they simply cannot go on pushing their weight around and bullying the population with the threat of severe and disproportionate punishments.

That is why I am looking forward to the day when the pandemic is defeated and we can get back to normal.

Not only because we could then enjoy our ordinary lives and accustomed liberties once again – meeting friends and family, going to church, the pub, the theatre and cinema – but, above all, we can firmly put some of these power-mad, overweening politicians firmly back in their box where they truly belong.

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