While the Westminster government has committed to abolishing the mask mandate across England from next week, other parts of the UK under the control of the left will remain subjected to mask mandates for the foreseeable future.
Mark Drakeford has committed to ending 'most' restrictions in Wales next month, but face masks will continue to be mandated in most public settings - including shops, public transport and health/social care facilities. No end date has been suggested.
Nicola Sturgeon says masks will be mandated in Scotland "for some time to come". That sounds rather ominous. Sturgeon appears the least keen of all the devolved governments to loosen the Covid grip.
Sadiq Khan has decreed that face masks will remain a 'condition of carriage' on public transport in London. It's not clear yet if his Greater Manchester counterpart Andy Burnham will follow suit, as pressure mounts from the pro-lockdown media and the rabid left who long to be subjugated by big government.
There is little evidence that masks reduce the spread of coronavirus. There was no mask mandate during the first wave, but there was during the second much bigger wave. Conversely, the removal of mask mandates in US states such as Texas and Florida - condemned by the left and Joe Biden - resulted in no increased transmission.
There is no evidence masks reduce transmission, but no doubt they increase fear of coronavirus. As Boris Johnson now freely admits, face masks were a 'basic tool to control human behaviour'. It is little wonder then that the powers looking to cling on to these tools are all from the totalitarian left of politics. No self-respecting conservative or libertarian should allow government to dictate these symbols of subjugation and fear ever again. We are many, they are few.
