Former British Supreme Court Justice: ‘This Is What a Police State Is Like’
https://www.anti-empire.com/former-british-supreme-court-justice-this-is-what-a-police-state-is-like/
"The real problem is that when human societies lose their freedom, it's
not usually because tyrants have taken it away"
The former Supreme Court Justice Jonathan Sumption, QC, has denounced the
police response to the coronavirus, saying the country is suffering ‘collective
hysteria’. This is an edited transcript of his interview with BBC Radio 4’s
World at One programme earlier today.
–BBC interviewer Jonny Dymond: ‘A hysterical slide into a police state. A
shameful police force intruding with scant regard to common sense or tradition.
An irrational overreaction driven by fear.’ These are not the accusations of
wild-eyed campaigners, they come from the lips of one our most eminent jurists
Lord Sumption, former Justice of the Supreme Court. I spoke to him just before
we came on air.
–Lord Sumption: The real problem is that when human societies lose their
freedom, it’s not usually because tyrants have taken it away. It’s usually
because people willingly surrender their freedom in return for protection
against some external threat. And the threat is usually a real threat but
usually exaggerated. That’s what I fear we are seeing now. The pressure on
politicians has come from the public. They want action. They don’t pause to ask
whether the action will work. They don’t ask themselves whether the cost will
be worth paying. They want action anyway. And anyone who has studied history
will recognise here the classic symptoms of collective hysteria. Hysteria is
infectious. We are working ourselves up into a lather in which we exaggerate
the threat and stop asking ourselves whether the cure may be worse than the
disease.
–Dymond: At a time like this, as you acknowledge, citizens do look to the
state for protection, for assistance, we shouldn’t be surprised then if the
state takes on new powers if it responds. That is what it has been asked to do,
almost demanded of it.
–Sumption: Yes that is absolutely true. We should not be surprised. But
we have to recognise that this is how societies become despotisms. And we also
have to recognise this is a process which leads naturally to exaggeration. The
symptoms of coronavirus are clearly serious for those with other significant
medical conditions, especially if they’re old. There are exceptional cases in
which young people have been struck down, which have had a lot of publicity,
but the numbers are pretty small. The Italian evidence, for instance, suggests
that only in 12 per cent of deaths is it possible to say coronavirus was the
main cause of death. So yes this is serious and yes it’s understandable that
people cry out to the government. But the real question is: is this serious
enough to warrant putting most of our population into house imprisonment,
wrecking our economy for an indefinite period, destroying businesses that
honest and hardworking people have taken years to build up, saddling future
generations with debt, depression, stress, heart attacks, suicides and
unbelievable distress inflicted on millions of people who are not especially
vulnerable and will suffer only mild symptoms or none at all, like the Health
Secretary and the Prime Minister.
.. –Sumption: Well, I have to say, it does. I mean, the tradition of
policing in this country is that policemen are citizens in uniform. They are
not members of a disciplined hierarchy operating just at the government’s
command. Yet in some parts of the country, the police have been trying to stop
people from doing things like travelling to take exercise in the open country,
which are not contrary to the regulations, simply because ministers have said
that they would prefer us not to. The police have no power to enforce
ministers’ preferences, but only legal regulations – which don’t go anything
like as far as the government’s guidance. I have to say that the behaviour of
the Derbyshire police in trying to shame people into using their undoubted
right to take exercise in the country and wrecking beauty spots in the Fells so
that people don’t want to go there, is frankly disgraceful.
This is what a police state is like. It’s a state in which the government
can issue orders or express preferences with no legal authority and the police
will enforce ministers’ wishes.
..
