A Sense of Place Magazine, Grassroots Dissent in a Time of Lockdown, As Editor, 16 September, 2020.

 

Grassroots Dissent in a Time of Lockdown

By Tim Flynn, Illustrated by Michael Fitzjames

The End the Lockdown Australia group on Facebook was formed in early April, mainly because of the fundamental belief of the founder Tim Flynn that “he had to do something”. In a time of lockdown this appeared the sole viable means of creating a grass roots movement.

Flynn, who has 30 years of experience in senior government financial roles, adapted the same methods that he would if “say, the council were planning to sell the local cricket pitch to property developers to build a set of units” to the online world.

The “Village Green Preservation Society” approach has proved broadly effective, in that an engaged online community of “Middle Australia” has been created, but there are a number of peculiarities that emerged that he wishes he had addressed earlier.

Tim concludes with an appeal to the Prime Minister and State Premiers to engage and collaborate with local community leaders to identify workable solutions rather than adopting the authoritarian approach which has characterised Government response up to this point.

He writes: Over the past few months, I have often wondered, what on earth led me to set up a Facebook Group dedicated to ending the lockdown. The original objective was “to encourage ordinary Australians to feel comfortable in engaging in debate about the merits of lockdown and the associated economic and societal impacts”; over time, the group has evolved into providing members with:

⦁ re-assurance in the face of incessant propaganda that they weren’t turning into conspiracy nuts or developing psychopathic granny-killing traits and

⦁ a means to focus lobbying effectively.

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COVID Lockdown: Victorian Premier May Have Lied About Curfew Advice

By Sydney Criminal Lawyers

Both the Victorian Police Commissioner and the Victorian Chief Health Officer have embarrassed Premier Daniel Andrews by admitting on separate occasions to national media that the nightly curfews which have Melburnians locked in their homes between the hours of 8pm to 5am were not instigated by either of them.

Now many are asking the question: who decreed the nightly lockdowns, and why?

Originally, Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews told State Parliament that the Police Commissioner had told him that a nightly curfew would make it easier to police stage four restrictions.

But this appears to be incorrect, with the Police Commissioner saying he was never consulted on the issue and was only alerted to the curfew hours before it was put into place on 2 August 2020.

Melburnians continue to face another several weeks of night curfews, although from this weekend, the night curfew will be changed to start at 9pm.

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Ten Killer Covid Facts

By Paul Collits

Politicians are said to love “killer facts”.  And to want to “follow the science”.  Sadly, those running our Covid policy responses seem not to want to do either.

An old boss of mine, an estimable Director General of a state government agency, once told me that politicians love nothing more than “killer facts” in their briefings.

Well, they don’t seem to anymore, or perhaps they do still want them but not to use in public.  Certainly not to change their minds.

There are a number of killer facts that baseball-bat the bedwetting arguments of the cultural maskists.  They are jaw droppers, yet they have barely registered in the public domain.  They certainly haven’t changed the minds of the bulk of the Anglophone populations who cheer on the lockdowns to such an extent that they can almost be heard audibly barracking for a second wave.

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