Look at the powers the government is giving police today and tell me they haven’t lost perspective over Covid 19, because it looks a lot like they have.

From today on - once this legislation passes - police will be able to come into your house without a warrant if they think there is a party going on inside.  A party.  Of more than ten people.  

Not a murder scene, not drug-cooking, a gathering of more than ten people.

Is that proportionate under level 2?

You could perhaps make excuses for the East German police approach under Levels 3 or 4, when health authorities were worried about silent community transmission, but under level 2 this is overkill.

We have 74 people with Covid-19 in this country and yet the Government believes it’s fine to allow police unfettered access into the homes of 5 million people.

Because that’s what this means: warrantless entry means no one checks that the officers are doing the right. It is entirely up to them.

The government could’ve required police to get a warrant first like we normally require in Western Democratic countries.  In normal times, even at night, police are able to get a warrant in a hurry from a JP. Yes, it takes slightly longer.  Yes, there is paperwork.  But that’s not unreasonable when police are coming into the homes of people who could be perfectly innocent.

How have we got to a stage where we think this is fine.  Where we accept rules that say only 10 people are allowed at funerals but 100 people can go to a pub?  Where families can’t get out of quarantine to say goodbye to dying family members and people in hospitals die without any loved ones holding their hands?

This all feels like a blinkered, monofocused, perfectionist approach to get zero zero zero, and to hell with the sadness and loss of human rights.

Politically, the law passing today is not a good for the government but especially bad for for the Attorney General David Parker. This is the same guy responsible for the stuff up over whether the lockdown was legal or not.  He has high regard for his own abilities and yet created far too many legal headaches for the government thus far.

Perspective has been lost here.