Why are people protesting against lockdown when we’re not in lockdown?

[PuzzledObserver]

Michael Gove threatened by anti-lockdown protestors

I just don’t understand. There are no restrictions now on where you can travel within England (other home nations may be different, haven’t followed), how many people can gather etc. We are not in lockdown. So why are people protesting against lockdown?

Of all the things to shout at Michael Gove about…

@Geamhradh

I don't disagree about the MH issues. It's ku now that my DD is back full time in school (not UK) after almost 18 solid months of online lessons that I now recognise her again. I teach 300 kids and they knuckled down, did what we asked them to do and didn't complain. But it broke them.

@Geamhradh, I am having the opposite MH problem with my DD. She can't settle into face to face teaching after 18 months of online, and all her friends appear to have dumped her ( Not in the UK either). Not that I am arguing for lockdown again at all.

And maybe wanting the government to be held to account for the damage lockdowns caused.

What does “holding the government to account” look like? I thought we did that at the ballot box.

Then again there was that interim report just published, saying the biggest government mistake in the handling of Covid was not locking down sooner.

Isn't there rumours/talks that government will reissue the WFH rule due to gas shortages? Maybe that's what 'lockdown' the protesters are protesting about

If they cant be bothered to have a proper vote on it i cant be bothered to obey it.

unherd.com/thepost/the-question-the-covid-report-failed-to-answer/

lauradodsworth.substack.com/p/the-mythology-of-the-lockdown-that

@User135644

The most vocal anti-lockdown brigade are typically anti-vax and it's the anti-vax sentiment that will have us back in lockdown (just look at the take up with teenagers).

Not sure what take up will be, but it seems that lots of teens are struggling to get vaccinated - dates cancelled, not enough vaccinations to do the cohort meant to be vaccinated, catching covid before could get vaccinated etc. They're going to let teens get vaccinated out of school now which should help. I've heard the same happening with people needing boosters, so hope that's getting sorted too.

"If people choose not to get vaccinated that's their choice. Hope they don't complain if they get really ill though"

They do, though. They tell right at the nurses helping them, in some cases.

We hope lockdown doesn't happen but the media already hinting at restrictions and the government like to drip feed.

[quote MercyBooth]unherd.com/thepost/the-question-the-covid-report-failed-to-answer/[/quote]
Do you know who's behind Unherd?
You might as well link articles from "the Far Right ex Tory ministers who left/were kicked out because of being too fascist" FB page.

@HalzTangz

Isn't there rumours/talks that government will reissue the WFH rule due to gas shortages? Maybe that's what 'lockdown' the protesters are protesting about

It would be awfully convenient now wouldn’t it 🤔

Not anti-vaccine but absolutely anti-lockdown. We are all gonna get COVID so if you aren’t in perfect health or in full blooming youth, you should get at least one shot.

Too bad Novavax isn’t on the market yet though

They’re just out for a rumble aren’t they?

Seems to be if you consider yourself slightly more intelligent and spoiling for a fight you glue yourself to a motorway.

Bit less intelligence and spoiling for a fight you protest about loss of freedoms and lockdown.

The real dimwits protest about vaccines and form picket lines outside vaccination centres.

Maybe people are just bored?

@Geamhradh yes - unherd/Laura Dodsworth is all conspiracy and far right rubbish.

And @lydia2577 www.samaritans.org/about-samaritans/research-policy/coronavirus-and-suicide/one-year-on-data-on-covid-19/what-do-we-know-about-coronavirus-and-suicide-risk/
There is no evidence as yet, so the statement you made is not fact - more your personal anecdotal experience/thoughts.

Some of these people are anti establishment
They hate being told what to do

There’s a movement ( well several- can’t remember what they’re called) who are currently serving ‘notices of liability’ to various well known people ( tv doctors and members of parliament etc) who are promoting the lockdown/ vaccine/ current restrictions etc With the idea that the government are acting unlawfully and must be held to account if/ when people die from the vaccine

I’d bet that is what Michael gove was facing yesterday rather than a ‘protest’

@WhiteChalk I did say in my post that it was my own experience and didn't state it was a 'fact'. I do however fully believe, and not just through my own experience, that many peoples mental health has been severely affected by the lockdowns. At least 2 of the people I know that sadly took their own lives were struggling massively with ongoing issues and crying out for face to face appointments, because over the phone appointments just simply are not, and never will be, the same. In all honesty the government are never going to release figures saying that the suicide rate has increased during lockdowns anyway!

I don’t dispute for one second that lockdowns have had negative effects, in a whole raft of ways: education, social development, mental health, the economy, to name but a few. And what’s more, those negative effects have been unevenly spread. ‘It’s not fair, ‘twas ever thus, I don’t know what you do about that.

The thing is - NOT locking down would also have had negative effects, in the shape of more Covid cases - or perhaps the same number of Covid cases over a shorter period of time. And THAT would have meant more deaths:-

• more Covid deaths, because more people would have caught it before they’d had the chance to be vaccinated
• more deaths from other causes, because of you think the delayed diagnosis and treatment for cancers and other things are bad now, they would have been worse without lockdown suppressing Covid.

It’s not that I think lockdown is a barrel of laughs, I don’t at all. It’s more that the consensus of the scientific bods is that it was better than the alternative, at least at the population level.

@Heatherjayne1972 I'd agree with that
One of the people I know protesting this is also
Anti marriage
Anti school system
Anti health service
Anti supermarkets
Anti insurance
Anti banks
Anti social care
Anti tax
Anti traditional jobs
Basically only wants to participate in society if it's completely on their personal terms
They are often threatening to sue people to protect their "rights" and fail to recognise that they come from a place of extreme privilege that allows them to act like this.

@User135644 you think teenagers should get a vaccine against something that is little to no threat to them? Especially since the vaccine does not stop the virus from spreading?

[quote Anna524]@User135644 you think teenagers should get a vaccine against something that is little to no threat to them? Especially since the vaccine does not stop the virus from spreading?[/quote]
Or wear a mask in school.

They are probably working class people who have lost everything during lockdowns. It's ok to be a smug middle class public sector worker who has no worry about their nice secure wage but in the real world a lot of people have lost their already very insecure livelihoods during lockdown so I imagine they feel they have very little to lose.

@User135644

The most vocal anti-lockdown brigade are typically anti-vax and it's the anti-vax sentiment that will have us back in lockdown (just look at the take up with teenagers).

This. Difficult to empathise with people who are anti vaxx and yet have no alternative plan but just shout at others.

@soredust exactly this!

Until you have had a business you have worked your whole life for decimated due to lockdowns and your ability to make a living snatched from you you really can’t understand. There are far too many middle class public sector workers who have got settled into working from their nice home offices and saving money on the commute abusing and name calling those who have lost everything. They are protesting as they will be the ones who bare the brunt of yet another lockdown! And thank goodness some people still care enough about our basic freedoms and ability to live a fulfilled life to protest!

@soredust it’s highly unlikely that every anti-lockdown protester is a wronged working class person though isn’t it? More likely there’s a variety of backgrounds there.

You’re compartmentalising people into categories of your own making in an attempt to strengthen a stance. If a stance requires fabrication to prop up then it’s weak.

I know someone in my town who is aggressively anti lockdown and ironically he had worked very little in his life, and taken plenty of drugs.