'Preposterous' coronavirus act must be stripped back, caller insists

21 March 2021, 16:27

'Preposterous' emergency legislation must be abolished, says caller

By Seán Hickey

This caller believes the UK must 'start resembling a democracy again' by protecting civil liberties and revising the extension to the coronavirus act.

Nate from Liverpool phoned in to express his support for Maajid Nawaz's proposal that we should only allow a three month extension to the coronavirus act rather than a further six months.

"The start of this pandemic I think we ceded rights very quickly almost without hesitation out of this sense of social responsibility," the caller said, admitting that he himself "fell into immediately agreeing with this."

"I believed these rights would be returned to us with ease," he added, but noted that the passing of the Police and Crime Bill changed his perspective.

"When that second reading passed, my red lines changed then. I started to get concerned by how many of my civil liberties were going to be suppressed."

He realised then that "once you cede these rights to the state it's very hard to get them back."

Maajid Nawaz: Six-month extension to coronavirus act 'makes no sense'

"The emergency legislation, should it be extended for six months? I don't think so, I think that's preposterous," the caller said, agreeing with Maajid's suggestion that there should be a revision of the act to only allow for a three-month extension.

He added that "that legislation needs protests to be made exempt from stay at home orders," to protect the civil liberties of the general public.

"We need to start resembling a democracy again."

Maajid was taken aback by the support during his show, concluding his conversation with Nate by stating that "people can begin to recognise where the honest people are and where the dishonest people are."

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