Buried in the latest ONS data dump of Covid research is a remarkable – if logical – statistic. Just 33% of over 80s have not met with anyone indoors since having their jab, with 43% admitting to meeting with people other than their carers or support bubble after receiving the first dose. After two jabs, this explicit rule-breaking rises to 48%. Despite the widespread rulebreaking, hospitalisation and death rates amongst the age group are tumbling…
Cheeky octogenarians are not alone – spritely 72-year-old Lord Sumption yesterday made a splash by telling UnHerd that “sometimes the most public-spirited thing that you can do with despotic laws like these is to ignore them” – even claiming that a quiet campaign of “civil disobedience” has already begun. At least among the elderly, the data does seem to agree with him…
Lord Sumption tells Woman with Stage Four Cancer Her Life is “Less Valuable”
Former Supreme Court Judge Lord Sumption told the BBC this morning that “52% of the electorate simply cannot have 100% of the spoils, they have to engage with the rest”. Rather letting the cat out of the bag.
The referendum was a binary choice, Leave or Remain. If the vote had been to Remain, Britain would not have semi-Brexited, it would have 100% remained in the EU. The British political system is adversarial, very adversarial currently, it usually results in clear outcomes. When a candidate wins a single vote more than their opponents they do get in fact 100% of the spoils. When Tony Blair won just 35% of the vote and 55% of the seats in parliament he still dominated British politics and remade centuries of constitutional order. Creating the Supreme Court for example…
