The Tyrants Are Out in Force Today

No benefits if your kids don't get their jabs and travel bans for journalists we don't agree with

The tyrannical voices had to go quiet for a while after their despicable outbursts during the pandemic. They were shamed into silence because most things they shrieked about turned out to be wrong. Fortunately, enough of us stood up to their hysterical bleating, enduring the pain until the truth prevailed.

But once a tyrant, always a tyrant and those people who want to use power unfairly and cruelly are starting to make a resurgence.

Take for example Sam Bowman, editor of Works in Progress. Today, he called for parents not to receive child benefit if their children don’t get the MMR jab.

Looking back through Sam’s tweets we can see he said the following during the pandemic:

• “we’re just not going to triage away from people just because they haven’t been vaccinated, even if we should.”

• “You’d have to be a very strange, inconsistent “libertarian” to oppose this! [vaccine passports in pubs]. Private businesses being able to refuse entry to customers who might put others at risk of infection seem like a total no-brainer";

• “I wish the messaging was clearer about how dangerous being unvaccinated is.”;

• “I feel very sorry for people asking how a vaccinated person could be at risk from an unvaccinated person.”;

• “The more I think about it the more I think vaccine passports should be done as an opt-in system that allows people to verify that they've had certain jabs but doesn't include unvaccinated people at all. It seems like the only way it can work politically.”;

• “The main exception is that unvaccinated people still impose a big cost on others when they get sick and clog up the health service, so IMO pressure / incentives to get people vaccinated are still reasonable.”;

• “Given that unvaccinated people are the main problem in terms of hospitals being overwhelmed, it's pretty dumb that the UK govt seems to prefer lockdown-type measures that hurt everyone instead of just putting pressure on the unvaccinated like this”;

• “if you've chosen not to get a vaccine, other people shouldn't have to have their lives disrupted to protect you from your stupidity.”;

Freddie Sayers, from Unherd, rightly pointed out to Sam that his comments during the pandemic are largely responsible for fewer children getting vaccinated. The trust in public health has dissipated.

Sam responded by saying that his claim, along with most of his writing, is made up.

Another tyrannical voice decided to try and ban journalists entering the EU today. Just because he doesn’t agree with who the journalist is supposedly interviewing.

Guy Verhofstadt, former Belgian PM, is a hardcore EU remainer. He absolutely hates Brexit. I have no problem with people who have an opposing view to me, in fact they are very much welcome. However, guys like Verhofstadt just won’t accept a democratic vote and they try their hardest to reverse a decision that has absolutely nothing to do with them. He suffers from Brexit Derangement Syndrome so badly that he thinks Russia wouldn’t have invaded Ukraine if the UK had stayed in the EU.

Verhofstadt thinks that because Tucker Carlson may interview Putin, he should be banned from entering the EU.

Gone are the days when journalists could interview whomever they chose. Now, mainstream journalists are only allowed to interview people who are following the narrative du jour.

These authoritarians need to be put back in their boxes before they lead us to a dark place.