Disturbing images show Europe brimming with rage over more coronavirus lockdown rules

As the coronavirus crisis progresses, the mood in Europe is turning ugly. Tempers are fraying. Frustration is on the boiling point.

And, as the shocking photos on this page reveal, with the introduction of new Covid restrictions across the continent, many countries are sliding into open rebellion.

Take Italy, for example, where this week at least a dozen cities have seen violent protests against the government’s reimposition of a strict lockdown.

The most serious occurred in Milan and Turin, where protesters set fire to, destroyed public transport, looted shops and attacked the police with stones and gasoline bombs.

The flames of discord have spread to Spain, where the declaration of a second state of emergency and the prospect of a six-month closure sparked large protests in the streets of Barcelona, ​​with dozens of litter bins set on fire.

There have been explosive anti-lockdown demonstrations in the Czech capital of Prague, at least one of which had to be broken up by the police with tear gas and water cannons.

Even Germany, where the public is known for its obedience to authority, is experiencing unrest.

“Why don’t you tell the truth, Mrs Merkel, about how we are losing our freedom, our jobs and our health?” read a poster at a demonstration in Berlin.

Across the English Channel in France, where a state of emergency has also recently been declared, there have been major protests in several cities, including Paris and Marseille.

In fact, a poll yesterday showed that only 37 percent of French voters believe that the government of President Emmanuel Macron has managed the pandemic effectively, which is not a surprise given that the daily total of infections surpassed the milestone. 50,000 on Sunday.

So how long will it be until Britain does the same and street protests break out?

Fortunately, our country has not yet reached the stage of combustible revolt.

But, as stoicism gives way to skepticism, it is clear that there is much less unity now than in the spring when the first lockdown was introduced.

Anti-lockdown demonstrations are a regular occurrence on weekends in central London, while the willingness of normally law-abiding citizens to comply with increasingly complex regulations is starting to weaken.

This week, even BBC presenter Victoria Derbyshire admitted that if the rule of six remained in place for Christmas, she would ignore it.

He later retracted this position, but his initial statement reflected an increasingly widespread disenchantment with the current rules.

According to the latest polls, only 39 percent of the public approve of the Covid policy of number 10.

Even Conservative MPs appear to have had enough, with several of those occupying northern seats now on the brink of an open rebellion against the government’s perceived lack of a coherent exit strategy from the new Covid closures being imposed on them with a devastating economic impact.

As someone who has to isolate himself due to an underlying health problem, the onset of Parkinson’s disease, I would expect me to support the current restrictions.

However, I have growing reservations about the government’s handling of this crisis.

Because it seems to me that we have ended up in the worst of all worlds, ruled by rules that are both draconian and ineffective.

A central part of the problem is that the public’s faith in the bureaucracy has been seriously eroded, in large part due to the great hypocrisy of those who devised Britain’s restrictions.

After all, it is impossible to maintain national cohesion when there is one law for citizens in distress and another for the privileged elite.

Too many of the rule-makers have turned out to be rule breakers, refusing to tolerate the very sacrifices they so piously demanded of others.

The most egregious provider of this double standard was undoubtedly Downing Street chief strategist Dominic Cummings, whose notorious drive to Barnard Castle in County Durham after hiring Covid was a clear violation of the lockdown.

His lack of contrition, regardless of his refusal to resign, has permanently undermined the credibility of the government and, I suggest, was a turning point for the public mood that, in recent months, has been increasingly restless.

There were, of course, others like him, like Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick who visited his self-isolating parents in distant Shropshire at the peak of the lockdown, or SNP MP Margaret Ferrier, who made a blatant round trip between Scotland and London. last month despite knowing she had tested positive for the virus.

Just as reprehensible was the behavior of Professor Neil Ferguson, a doomed scientist, the true architect of the lockdown strategy, whose illicit dates with his married lover mocked his harsh injunctions against domestic mixing.

“I thought I was immune,” he said in his defense, having tested positive for the coronavirus and been in isolation for “almost two weeks,” a statement that we now know contained more political than medical truth.

Meanwhile, the moral impact of such hypocrisy on the country has only been compounded by the government’s heavy hand in imposing new restrictions.

More than 8 million people in England now live under the highest Level 3 rules, while the decentralized nations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have even stricter locks.

In fact, the Welsh government appears to have become a mixture of theatrical farce, communist East Germany, and Cromwellian puritanism. Strange and contradictory regulations on essential sales have led to books on supermarket shelves being cordoned off with police tape.

“I can buy a Babycham, but not baby milk,” complained a buyer, highlighting the nonsense.

Over the weekend, a church service in Cardiff was even raided by police with searchlights because it broke the particularly draconian “firewall” restrictions of Wales.

This assault on essential freedoms is not wholly British. Freedom must be central to the heritage of this country.

However, today, ordinary people are being severely punished without trial for violating some arbitrary edict.

Just ask University of Manchester student Carys Ingram, who was recently fined £ 6,600 after she posted a photo of herself on social media breaking quarantine rules during a visit to see her family in the Islands. of the Chanel.

Of course, it could have been worse. Last week individual fines of £ 10,000 were imposed on three Nottingham students for hosting a house party.

And in recent weeks we’ve seen how easy it is for this work mentality to descend into outright cruelty.

That trend was epitomized earlier this month during a funeral at a Milton Keynes crematorium, where the ceremony was interrupted by a terrifyingly cold official who rushed to prevent a son from hugging his grieving mother.

It was a deeply disturbing indication of how current social distancing measures are making people suffer unnecessarily.

However, we must also remember that Britain as a whole is also paying a huge price for the current restrictions, both financially and in terms of our overall health.

At the beginning of this year, who would have thought that by October we would be living in a country where the national debt is greater than the size of the economy?

And so, after failing so miserably on so many fronts, it would take a government of some impudence to now demand the absolute obedience of the British public.

Because doing so will only stoke the fire of outrage.