A week or so back, I was in a pub when a group began singing along, very loudly to music. Being aware of research which indicates that COVID-19 can be spread by singing, https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-09-unmasked-indoors-covid-aerosols.html , I became concerned and deliberately shifted my position so that my face was away from the singers.

My feelings regarding the above incident remain ambivalent. On the one hand, I believe that the singers behaved irresponsibly (there actions could have spread Corona), However, on the other hand we all need some joy in our lives and the measures introduced during the present pandemic do not spread happiness! In addition, I was sitting approximately 2 metres away from the singers, which put me at minimum risk. Also, I had entered the pub of my own volition and (despite my worries about the spread of the virus), I was pleased to see people enjoying themselves.

Had the police entered the premises, they would, I suspect have asked the singers to desist or, if they had refused to do so, issued a fine.

A society in which people can be fined for singing in pubs is not one which recommends itself to me, and I’m not in the business of reporting individuals who choose to exercise their lungs by singing.

I find it shocking that in some parts of the UK (much of the north-west of England for example) that it is against the law for different households to mix together. I’m equally disturbed that some politicians are actively encouraging members of the public to report on those breeching the rules on households mixing, (see https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-report-your-neighbours-to-police-if-they-break-rule-of-six-says-minister-12071678). Until very recently ratting on one’s neighbours in this manner would have been considered as something done in the Third Reich or the former German Democratic Republic (Communist East Germany), and wholeheartedly condemned by lovers of traditional English liberty.

I recommend this article for anyone who doubts the absurdity of the current muddle which constitutes COVID-19 regulations, https://capx.co/in-the-age-of-covid-the-law-is-a-thug/.

People talk of “the science”. Whilst COVID-19 is a real problem and those who deny it’s existence (conspiracy theorists) are barking mad, there is no scientific consensus on how to deal with the pandemic. See, for example this article about scientists opposed to lockdown (with which I have some sympathy), https://news.sky.com/story/scientists-and-politicians-split-over-how-to-tackle-rising-covid-infections-as-northern-leaders-say-restrictions-are-not-working-12096597.