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Writer's pictureEditor Darren Birks

Scotland's 'Emergency' Powers to Become Permanent


Nicola Sturgeon uses favoured trick of Communist dictators.


One of the most alarming things about the scamdemic is how supposed 'democratic' governments have enthusiastically granted themselves ’emergency’ powers. The powers , suspend civil rights – and elections – so that they might better deal with what they assure us, is a threat to our survival. Governments doing this have faced virtually no opposition from legislatures, attempts to restrain political leaders through the courts have been largely unsuccessful and the media has, for the most part, failed to hold them to account.


A few lone voices, such as former Supreme Court Judge Lord Sumption warned that these types of powers are never withdrawn after the emergency has ended, history tells us that, repeatedly. They rapidly become permanent, and are soon used to control the public in everyday life, with the original purpose long since forgotten. Take Pub opening hours for instance, 10.30 closing times were brought in by a tea-total puritan prime minister Lloyd George in 1915 who was convinced that the factory workers were all drunks not pulling their weight in the war effort so enforced strict opening hours to curb their drunken behaviour, those laws remained in place until the 1990s, some 80 years after the war had ended and it took another act of parliament to finally assign them to history.


Governments awarding themselves what amounts to 'total and unchallenged control' over the people invariably claim that these emergency powers are just temporary, and once the crisis has ended that they will assign them to the bin of history. So far not a single country on earth has dissolved those powers, the ones that put an end date on the law have simply extended them, and will keep doing so, effectively making them permanent as the end date becomes ever further in the future.


The Scottish Government has stopped that pretence and just unveiled plans to make its ’emergency’ Covid powers permanent. At this point governments can pretty much do whatever they want.


John Swinney, the Deputy First Minister, unveiled a paper proposing the removal of the March 2022 expiry date for a host of extraordinary powers, including the ability to impose lockdowns, close schools and require people to wear face coverings. Other controversial rules such as allowing more prisoners to be released early would also be extended, along with the wider use of fines as an alternative to prosecution.


Mr Swinney insisted measures that were no longer needed would be removed, but argued those with “demonstrable benefit to the people of Scotland” should be retained for use against Covid or anything else deemed a public health threat. He argued the consultation was “an opportunity to maintain changes that have been welcomed by people who now don’t want to lose transformations that have been innovative” during the pandemic.


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