Covid fines don’t go far enough
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I hope that Welsh Government take a serious look at the new fine system being introduced in England and actually go further. There should be a fine for not wearing face coverings in the appropriate places as well as a fine for the wrong number of people.
As so many people don’t want to comply with the guidance on social distancing and face coverings there is no alternative but to fine people for non compliance so that the rest of us who are compliant can be safe.
Not adhering to all of the rules (although they are so confusing in different areas) is an act of selfishness that cannot be tolerated.
The attitude of some people being live for today and tomorrow will look after itself – this can be fine for some people but this attitude will inevitably mean some people will have no tomorrow as they will have died as a result of the selfish attitude of others.Only problem with fines is if those ignoring guidance aren’t amongst the employed, they will not be able to pay more than a nominal sum per week. You could ban them from shops, pubs & clubs for 6 months but how could it be policed. There isn’t even any point in naming & shaming as they would enjoy the notoriety. The punishment needs to fit the crime but how?
People gleefully cheerleading for extreme punitive measures over seemingly minor infractions of the rules coupled with the repeat calls from government ministers to grass on your neighbours is a one way sleepwalk into fascism if you ask me.
We’ve seen this direction in 1930s Germany as well as countless warnings from dystopian fiction. Very rarely do extreme authoritarian governments get in by force they do so by a cowed compliance of the vast majority of the public based upon an atmosphere of fear – in this case Covid.
Now I firmly believe that people should be taking the civic duty of masking up where required and so far this week, I’d say 99% of people are doing their bit and complying.
The social distancing thing and numbers game is a bit more difficult as technically you can still have groupings of 30 outside in Wales – so a group would have to be pretty large to be policed. Likewise who is going to go knocking door to door to check that only 6 people excluding children are there at any one time indoors? We don’t have the police numbers and also who would like that to be a thing?
The fact is not all of society is going to be compliant in any activity – hence the need for jails for criminals. But if we can get most people to play ball by nudge theory and civic duty then the coronavirus infection rates will go down. Then you just focus on heavily penalising the worst/repeat offenders without creating an atmosphere of fear for the rest of us.
I appreciate where people are coming from, it’s very frustrating and angering to be playing by the rules and seeing people blatantly flout it and risk other people’s health and lives. But we’re going to have to face this for potentially a long time so a certain level of give and take and tolerance is required for all of our sanity.
At the end of the day if the current state of play where rules on social interaction aren’t making the R rate go down we will have to go back into a full lockdown.
R is definitely on the increase and is now over 1 (politicians tell us) imagine what it would be if the testing system was working. At present it appears to be approx 1% of all tested are proving positive. For every person positive who is not isolating they are infecting 2 people. This is a health related matter so comparing it with Hitler and the attempt to takeover Europe is quite distasteful as these things are so different.
You find a poignant comment on history distasteful?
Yet you see nothing wrong with this statement you made?
Make them do a shift in the mortuary moving the bodies of the dead victims of Covid!
You want to force people against their will to move dead bodies? Okay then.
Totally agree with Matt. Some people refuse to learn from history until history repeats itself exactly – by which time it’s too late. Look for parallels; don’t wait for tanks, swastikas and goose-stepping armies.
On the Isle of Man, several people have been jailed for breaching covid rules. No messing around there.
What is the difference between someone with a gun doing random shootings and someone who is Covid positive – the end result is likely to be the same some people will die and others will be seriously ill.
There are laws to stop someone owning a deadly gun so why not strict laws for someone spreading a deadly virus?
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