75th anniversary of VE Day — and the UK is in lockdown

Friday, May 8, 2020, was a national holiday in the UK to commemorate the 75th anniversary of VE Day.

It’s a bittersweet commemoration.

The Allies fought for our freedom.

In the UK, we are still in lockdown for coronavirus.

Not a day has gone by when I haven’t considered that all those freedoms fought for were taken from us on the evening of Monday, March 23, 2020. All it took was an announcement from Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

This is where we are:

https://twitter.com/stopcpdotcom/status/1258696150540005376

We await Boris’s announcement on Sunday, May 10, re lockdown.

This tweet is from the co-editor of Conservative Woman:

I’m slow to use the much abused f word.
But I’m sorry. @BorisJohnson is threatening indefinite lockdown.
House arrest dependent on modelling/data/R rate that the public are bamboozled by.
This is getting close to fascism.
It really is.https://t.co/LHYi8BseN6

— Laura Perrins (@LPerrins) May 7, 2020

https://twitter.com/brexsheets/status/1258530863928627201

https://twitter.com/WillowWyse/status/1258538659403280386

that's because they are testing now
they've probably existed for weeks/months

— Since_2010 (@Since_201o) May 7, 2020

I find it hard to believe that Boris can credibly extend lockdown (which isn’t saying he won’t) …

https://twitter.com/hector_drummond/status/1258503193157394441

… particularly in light of Prof Neil Ferguson’s bogus numbers …

6 times wrong, going for 7? pic.twitter.com/e74kes0tHr

— Richard Hammond (@Richard93111191) May 6, 2020

https://twitter.com/PatrickTedstone/status/1257729770214903808

… and resignation from SAGE for having his mistress over — twice:

What’s shocking is Boris’ apparent inability to see he’s doing the Marxist’s work for them

— Adam Connolly (@Adam__Connolly) May 5, 2020

Boris told us his was to be the People’s Government. I hope someone reminds him of that.

This was VE Day 2020, as Kathy Gyngell, the other co-editor of Conservative Woman, puts so aptly:

https://twitter.com/PhyllisFancy/status/1258513803890708482

This letter to the editor comes from author Virginia Ironside, born a year before VE Day:

https://twitter.com/Derinda123/status/1258695173711843328

She nails it in the last paragraph.

The lockdown has shown there is an ‘us’ and a ‘them’. Ferguson’s lover said that lockdown was straining her marriage. Aww diddums. She lives in a £1.9m house. Imagine if she were living with an abusive husband on the 15th floor of a council block:

https://twitter.com/vin_vin11/status/1258056233824792581

So, what hope have we?

https://twitter.com/hector_drummond/status/1258469606647308289

https://twitter.com/hector_drummond/status/1258463890075267072

https://twitter.com/hector_drummond/status/1258468013579350017

I have never lost sight of this fact:

https://twitter.com/hector_drummond/status/1258463648231706626

A German virologist agrees. (I’m ever thankful that peacetime brought Europe together.) I watched this interview, which is excellent:

Also interesting that he found 'super-spreading events' more than schools biggest vectors (these tend to be inside, at close quarters, dancing/singing/kissing) outside events and even households not so much…

— Freddie Sayers (@freddiesayers) May 5, 2020

https://twitter.com/talkinhockey/status/1257756306213134336

Meanwhile, in Sweden:

https://twitter.com/hector_drummond/status/1258391054719561730

https://twitter.com/orgogg/status/1258392697963982850

And let’s not forget the economic impact, the worst since 1706:

https://twitter.com/hector_drummond/status/1258432816750235649

https://twitter.com/hector_drummond/status/1258432977312395264

https://twitter.com/hector_drummond/status/1258433115753721860

These facts make watching the late afternoon daily coronavirus briefing all the more painful.

Dominic Raab, Boris’s First Secretary (deputy PM), was at the main lectern on Thursday, May 7:

https://twitter.com/GerardjMaroney/status/1258436100869193731

What sanctimonious twat is going to do this 5 pm press conference.
Just can’t bear to watch them tell us all how dangerous having a picnic is.
Bastards.

— Laura Perrins (@LPerrins) May 7, 2020

Is that one picnic per week or one a month Comrade?

— Ken Ellis (@KenEllis2204) May 7, 2020

One veteran of the Second World War, Captain Tom Moore, raised more than $28m for the NHS by walking around his garden 100 times. He uses a zimmerframe (walker), so this could not have been easy.

For his 100th birthday a few days ago, the Royal Air Force gave him his own personal flypast.

And now ITV made a documentary about his time in the war, which was shown on Friday:

Story of Captain Tom's wartime adventures to air on ITV to mark VE Day @itvpresscentre @itvhttps://t.co/GdjYce0Fyn

— ITV News Anglia (@itvanglia) April 23, 2020

God bless him. Many happy returns, Captain Tom!