I have seen a number of recent statements about how our liberty and freedoms are under attack through measures to stop the spread of COVID19.

One claim is the Government is somehow muzzling freedom of speech. I refer to the 1951 waterfront lockout where waterside workers and allied workers were not permitted to speak, meet or publish information for their cause under ’emergency regulations.’ In fact it was illegal to supply food to the families of locked out workers. This was done under a National Government. This is an example of freedom of speech (and more) being ripped away, not the current measures to protect our health.

Secondly, to the imbeciles (including MPs) who are now saying things like New Zealand is in danger of becoming a one party state, totalitarianism, Hitler etc. I refer to the occupation of the Channel Islands by the Nazis in World War 2, which my family lived under for five years. This was one party state totalitarianism, including executions and slave camps, not the Prime Minister giving a press conference on a pandemic.

The danger here is because we live in the ‘bubble of the present’ some will believe the confusion being sown by the far right and conspiracy theorists, who now appear to be merging in a bizarre new ideology. It is important to resist this wave of dangerous nonsense.

For the record, I am not a Labour Party supporter and have never voted for them. However it is plainly obvious that, errors notwithstanding, the approach to the Pandemic by the New Zealand Government has been in general responsible and science based.