O/T:- ⚠️Impressed with the leadership [The UK Party Politics Thread]

[jackal2]

Disagree. If it is proved masks that are effective against containing the virus (pick your own Googled 'proof' either way) then it has to be a legal requirement. I absolutely hate wearing the bloody things, but common sense tells me they can either do good or do nothing. I just don't see how they can have an adverse effect, so as annoying as they are we should take the safe option. I liken it to the wearing of seat belts and obeying speed limits when driving. Since both were made law the number of road fatalities has declined. Do you also think that wearing a seat belt and sticking to the speed limit should be a matter of personal choice?

A mischievous question, but I think the benefits of wearing seat belts are far more comprehensively proven than the benefits of wearing masks, which are still a bone of considerable contention even amongst some medical experts. And I'm saying that as someone who chooses to wear mine in certain places, as I've stated above, so I'm not coming from a position of bias against masks.

I suspect there is far more consensus amongst the public about the law regarding seatbelts than some of the restrictions around Covid, including mask-wearing, and good laws are usually the ones that have broad public consent and thus willing compliance from most. Ultimately, if large numbers of otherwise law-abiding people decide a particular law is unfair or unnecessary and choose to disregard it, then it becomes difficult to police anyway. There was broad public consensus over the restrictions imposed during the first lockdown, but I think the public view now is far more nuanced, which is where advice rather than imposition becomes the best way forward.

Sometimes it goes the other way too, where the Government fails to create or change law despite a broad public consensus that it should. For instance, I'm in favour of assisted dying, as are three in four Britons apparently, but successive Governments have failed to reflect this by revisiting that area of law, despite multiple opportunities.