To feel outraged at this former family GP being sent to prison for a Covid fine while the U.K. govt partied hard.

[GeraniumsAndPoppies]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn446pd25m8o

It will have cost the public purse a huge sum to have put this GP in prison. Four years on from lockdown, she has gone to prison for non payment of a fine. The whole thing seems ludicrous.

I've sat in court on quite a number of occasions and seen how freemen behave towards the judge and the rules of the court. They just think they are above it all, and continue to think that through multiple further chances to behave until it is too late. The look of shock on their faces when they get a prison sentence is actually quite hard to see. It's the moment they finally realise the freeman nonsense really doesn't work.

It just goes to show that you can be educated and still be stupid.

This

If it were simply a case of her standing by her convictions, I might have a modicum of respect for her and her refusal to pay the fine.

But when you don’t think laws exist or are not enforceable because you’ve read pseudo-legal woo on Twitter, you’re just a extremely dim.

How would you make her do community service though? The problem with these freeman nutters is they literally believe that laws don’t apply to them.

Quite. She would undoubtedly fail to turn up and cost the court system even more.

Yeah I didn’t quite follow her argument about the prosecutor person not existing or something?

true, she may not be best candidate for community service.

Worth a read:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_on_the_land_movement

She might not be a fully-fledged Freeman but she certainly seems to believe in her own version of the legal system, wherein she is not able to be prosecuted because the role of Director of Public Prosecutions (in her belief system) doesn’t exist.

Or mentally ill, or have substance abuse problems. I’ve met several Freemen of the Land and none of them were normal well-adjusted people.

If I had to guess, she’s probably someone who didn’t agree with lockdowns and fell down some online conspiracy rabbit holes about how governments can’t validly pass laws.

She does seem a bit unhinged, but I find it galling that Johnson et al broke the rules that they set and got off so lightly. They were supposed to be setting an example.

My husband died during lockdown over a bank holiday weekend. It took ages for the ambulance to arrive. Because it was apparently called in as an "unexpected death at home" the police turned up.

My next door neighbour was prevented from seeing me. (She'd been woken up by the ambulance when it finally arrived. They went to the wrong house.) At 6 in the morning - 7 hrs after he'd died, but 6 hrs after his death was finally called an undertaker working for the police took my husband to the municipal mortuary.

I phoned round family and friends. A family friend told me that I could sleep at her house that night, provided I left early in the morning before the neighbours saw me. (She was already in a bubble, as was every other person I knew. I have no children of my own.)

Then I found out about the partying and the Hancock nonsense. I shall never forget or forgive.

As noted by virtually everyone on the thread, she's a Freeman of the Land nut. She's been in court on a number of occasions and refused to pay the fines; I have less than no sympathy for her.

How does she think the country works? Everything is paid for with taxes, including her medical education and the NHS. What sort of mental gymnastics is she performing to let her spout such rubbish?

Just because some people got away with it, it doesn't follow that we should let everyone else off.

Many of these Freemen drive without licences and insurance, because they are under the misapprehension that they can do as they please, seemingly unaware that we don't live in a remote, agrarian society.

It doesn’t actually matter whether she is unhinged or not. The law doesn’t discriminate. The ‘laws’ introduced on covid were secondary legislation rushed through parliament without the proper processes. They were entirely subject to primary legislation and, as they contradict some primary Acts of Parliament such as the HRA 1998, they were essentially worthless. Trying to pursue one or two members of the public when we know that the politicians and civil servants who created this legal mess were having parties after work without consequence makes a farce of the whole thing.

I’ve seen a few videos on YouTube of these sovereign citizen types. They are without exception terminally dim and always get their arses handed to them by cops and judges, who I reckon must get annual CPD on how to handle them.

I haven’t heard if this freemen thing people are talking about here. I have come across people who completely misunderstand common law and think they have common law rights, which is a total contradiction. Common law is just our system of legal precedent, which our judges take into account combined with judicial interpretations of acts of Parliament and other forms of legislation.

Fixed penalty notices, which are the means of giving on the spot fines were introduced in the 80s for parking offences, but mission creep since has seen them applied in all sorts of areas (most famously ASBOs). There are also civil penalties. It isn’t clear what was used for her, but either way, the context (a public protest) should have mitigated against that. George Floyd protests took place unimpeded in London on the grounds that the legal right to freedom of assembly and public protest was protected by primary legislation and therefore trumped the covid regulations.

The only aspect of this case which seems completely wrong to me is that she obviously wanted to be jailed and that wish has been fulfilled.The judge concerned has an exceptional record for dealing with domestic violence and animal cruelty, he takes no nonsense.I can't see what choice he had other than to jail her but it does play into her hands.
I don't glorify anyone due to their job title, many ills in society in the past and present are attributable to this nonsense. My neighbour is highly educated and flies white flags, drives without insurance, etc due to this nonsense. I don't respect him because of his level of education, thankfully we've moved on from that forelock tugging.

Given what we know now about excess deaths amongst the young and myocarditis/turbo cancers I'd say she was a hero. Her crime is to not go along with the bullshit.

Just because she is a GP doesn’t mean she can’t be an idiot. Yes she is book smart but based on her views and actions with regards to this, her ‘intelligence’ doesn’t appear to extend to compliance with the law.

Yes, they refuse to pay council tax, refuse to pay parking fines or speeding fines, refuse to get insurance or comply with motoring rules.

Do look up the freemen. You will find it quite fascinating.

They spout a thrilling amount of pseudo legal nonsense

YANBU, it's revolting.

People are of course right that her actions then made things worse, and I have a particular loathing for freeman on the land nonsense. Nonetheless, the fining system was itself fundamentally unjust and appallingly applied (see some of Tristan Kirk's accounts for more details) and became farcical once Partygate kicked in. She didn't create any of that.

Agreed. I am sure of this. I think the movement preys on vulnerable people

There seem to be some dominant leader types herding up vulnerable people and egging them on

But it doesn't make the premise any less nonsensical

This. The governance during covid was piss poor.

Yes,.they constantly attempt to argue this when fined etc . The mind boggles.

It would be funny if it wasn't for the waste of public resources and the fact I think many are vulnerable and being egged on by people who prey on those vulnerabilities

Agreed, and I think it would be fabulous if someone fought their fine on these lines.

But she won't have even thought to. She'll have refused to use a lawyer, dumped a whole load of pseudo legal babble about magna carta and the courts seal or something into countless letters and refused to cooperate in any sensible way