Thoughts on the ‘new normal’

The case of an Australian man threatened with jail for drinking his takeaway coffee alone on a park bench raises questions of how far police should go in enforcing Government-sanctioned social isolation and stay-at-home-orders.

It is accepted that Australia is in a state of emergency, and certain freedoms that were once taken for granted are now curtailed.

However, the extent to which isolation and total obedience to authority can be enforced almost literally overnight in a free and robust democratic society needs thinking through.

The sight of squads of police and military on the streets, stopping and questioning people, is unsettling. It may be necessary, but with enforcement needs to come a certain degree of discretion.

Let’s go back to the man on the park bench. We know nothing about him, but let us imagine he lives alone in a small, one bedroom basement flat with nothing but the television and endless surfing of the internet to distract him.

Or he might be in slightly larger accommodation with his partner and two bored and argumentative children.

Suddenly deprived of his normal social activities of pub, club, gym and cinema, he just needed to get away, outside into the fresh air.

A few minutes with a takeaway coffee on a park bench, being careful to keep to social distancing rules, would seem a not unreasonable thing to do.

I do not share the view that our police are all fascists in the making, just hanging out for emergencies like this in order to push people around.

There are plenty of examples of this going on in the world at present. The young man in Kenya shot to death while standing out on his balcony because he was deemed to be breaking a curfew; Philippines military ordered to shoot anyone for “causing a commotion” — whatever that means.

Our police are not like that, but there are times, especially among the less experienced officers, of seeing things in black and white, while a few shades of grey are needed.

Otherwise the country could be faced with a new surge in mental illness when the current crisis is over.

Perhaps a more worrying result of this pandemic is the extent to which authorities in countries that should be best equipped to deal with it are being found wanting.

In the United States a simple thing like face masks is in such short supply that they are being issued only to medical and other emergency workers, and even then there are not enough to go round.

Members of the public are urged to cover their noses and mouths using “tee-shorts or bandanas” — this in a country that prides itself in being the richest and most advanced in the world.

In the UK, police have been cracking down on that most British of activities – dog walking. Some stores have been told not to sell chocolate Easter eggs “because they are not essential items”.

Yet when it comes to the really essential items, such as COVID-19 testings kits and ventilators, the Government has failed to produce.

As one National Health Service staff member said: “They ask people to applaud us, while not giving us the equipment we need to save live and even to protect ourselves.”

In recent decades leading Western nations have moved away from the socialist concept of cradle-to-grave care.

In doing so they have assured their people most will be better off in a free market allowing them to achieve their full potential, but that the Government would always be there with a safety net for those who fall by the wayside.

In recent weeks the safety net has been stretched and the holes have appeared.