My legal challenge may have failed, but I’ll keep fighting so lockdown can never be allowed to happen again
In March, the government imposed the most draconian set of rules on British citizens that this country has ever known. Our rights and freedoms were stripped away in plain daylight, without parliamentary scrutiny, and without so much as a thought for ordinary people, their way of life, and their livelihoods.
I woke up yesterday morning quietly optimistic that the government would finally be held accountable for the blood on its hands, and that my judicial review would be a first step towards justice. But I have been bitterly disappointed, once again.
Following last week’s preliminary hearing, permission to launch a formal legal challenge to lockdown has been refused. According to the opinion of the judge considering the case, lockdown was entirely correct and proportionate. This means that in future, governments will have the right to impose a lockdown whenever they choose – and in doing so remove the livelihoods of millions – without having to legally justify its actions.
The power to do so rests with a minister – in this case the health secretary Matt Hancock – and “other public bodies”, who have the right to take away our freedoms without being properly held to account by parliament or the judiciary.
This isn’t the Great Britain we all know.
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