//I don't understand the remark about social control. Why would the government want to get people into masks? Just for the thrill of being in control?//
Who knows whether they get a thrill from it, but it's part of a wider strategy to maintain a level of fear and anxiety among the population. This strategy (as Mr Brady points out and I highlighted over a year ago) was promulgated by a nasty sounding group, who advised ministers that it was necessary to instil such fear in order to secure compliance, not only with face coverings but with all the other measures that have been introduced over the past sixteen months.
Mr Brady's reference to the "Stockholm Syndrome" is well placed. It is clear now that the purpose of face coverings is no longer highlighted as a genuine strategy to combat the virus, but as a way of securing comfort and confidence among people who may otherwise not go out. Well that wasn't the point of the legislation (nor of the continuing "guidance" now that the legislation has been ditched). I'm not in the business of providing comfort and confidence to others. If they don't want to go out they can stay in.
Mr Brady's article makes for very interesting reading, particularly in his succinct dissection of some of the principle restrictions that have been imposed:
"...when we could leave our homes, whether we could see our families, with whom we were allowed to have sex, or what kinds of sports we were permitted to play,..."
And some of the responses to questions of other politicians he has posed:
"When I asked a Health Minister in the Commons how she could justify banning healthy activities such as golf, tennis or bowls, she actually replied that while those activities were indeed safe, if we ‘let people do those things, they might think they can do other things too’."
No, Mr Brady is not a scientist (as far as I know). But he is a politician, the chairman of a group seeking to hold the government to account (the job of Her Majesty's opposition, who seem singularly unable to cope with that task). There is no doubt that the Covid restrictions are a massive exercise in government control, the likes of which this country has never seen (and should never see again, regardless of the circumstances). Mr Brady is right to question the motives of these continuing restrictions.