• Contact
  • About
  • Authors
DONATE
NEWSLETTER SIGN UP
  • Login
Yorkshire Bylines
  • Home
  • News
    • All
    • Brexit
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Home Affairs
    • Transport
    • World
    Emmanuel Macron

    French parliamentary elections 2022: shockwaves across the Channel

    Rail strikes

    Millions affected by biggest rail strike action in 30 years

    cost of living march london

    Trade union movement marches to demand better

    European Union

    After the seismic shocks of Brexit and Covid, what next for the European Union?

    Eurovision 2022 stage - photo by Michael Doherty on Wikimedia Commons licensed by CC BY-SA 4.0

    What does Ukraine’s Eurovision win tell us about the politics of solidarity?

    Refugee Week

    Refugee week: a chance to celebrate refugees

    Yorkshire cows

    British farmers are being offered a lump sum payment to leave the industry – but at what cost to agriculture?

    Julian Assange

    Julian Assange’s extradition given the green light by the UK home secretary

    RSPB heritage event

    RSPB heritage event to tell the story of the Dearne Valley, from coal face to wild place

    Trending Tags

    • Johnson
    • Coronavirus
    • Labour
    • Starmer
    • NI Protocol
    • Brexit
    • Culture
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Home Affairs
    • Transport
    • World
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Culture
    • Dance
    • Food
    • Music
    • Poetry
    • Recipes
    • Sport
    Nostell Priory, Wakefield

    Glastonbury? What’s Glastonbury? When the music world came to Wakefield

    Headingley Cricket Stadium

    A view from the Roses match: is everything ‘rosey’ in English cricket?

    Bettys' Fat Rascals

    Scallywags, scoundrels and rascals abound in Yorkshire (we do like our scones)

    'Woke' beliefs

    Woke and proud: Compassion must never be allowed to go out of fashion

    Eurovision 2022 stage - photo by Michael Doherty on Wikimedia Commons licensed by CC BY-SA 4.0

    What does Ukraine’s Eurovision win tell us about the politics of solidarity?

    Red Ladder

    Climbing the Red Ladder – bringing theatre to the community

    Kaiser Chiefs in Doncaster

    Kaiser Chiefs never miss a beat in Doncaster

    Bradford Council leader Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, second from right, is joined by Keighley Creative representatives, from left, Georgina Webster, Jan Smithies and Gemma Hobbs.

    Bradford announced as City of Culture 2025

    Queen cakes fit for a Queen

    Queen Cakes fit for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

    • Food
    • Music
    • Poetry
    • Sport
  • Business
    • All
    • Economy
    • Technology
    • Trade
    Freya Osment from Northern Gas Networks

    International Women in Engineering Day 2022

    Rail strikes

    Millions affected by biggest rail strike action in 30 years

    conservative party

    The Conservative Party: fiscally irresponsible and ideologically incapable of addressing the current crises

    Yorkshire cows

    British farmers are being offered a lump sum payment to leave the industry – but at what cost to agriculture?

    cost-of-living-crisis-in-voluntary-sector

    Cost-of-living crisis looming for the voluntary sector

    Money on the floor - £20 notes

    The huge cost of Brexit is being seriously understated

    Financial problems

    Surge in bad debt and late payments indicate mounting business distress in Yorkshire

    An evening photo tour of Drax power station near Selby, North Yorkshire, with excellent light towards sunset.

    Winter blackouts and rationing for six million homes as government plans for disruption to energy supply

    Jar with money cascading out of it

    Boosterism doesn’t put food on the table

    Trending Tags

      • Economy
      • Technology
      • Trade
    • Region
    No Result
    View All Result
    • Home
    • News
      • All
      • Brexit
      • Education
      • Environment
      • Health
      • Home Affairs
      • Transport
      • World
      Emmanuel Macron

      French parliamentary elections 2022: shockwaves across the Channel

      Rail strikes

      Millions affected by biggest rail strike action in 30 years

      cost of living march london

      Trade union movement marches to demand better

      European Union

      After the seismic shocks of Brexit and Covid, what next for the European Union?

      Eurovision 2022 stage - photo by Michael Doherty on Wikimedia Commons licensed by CC BY-SA 4.0

      What does Ukraine’s Eurovision win tell us about the politics of solidarity?

      Refugee Week

      Refugee week: a chance to celebrate refugees

      Yorkshire cows

      British farmers are being offered a lump sum payment to leave the industry – but at what cost to agriculture?

      Julian Assange

      Julian Assange’s extradition given the green light by the UK home secretary

      RSPB heritage event

      RSPB heritage event to tell the story of the Dearne Valley, from coal face to wild place

      Trending Tags

      • Johnson
      • Coronavirus
      • Labour
      • Starmer
      • NI Protocol
      • Brexit
      • Culture
      • Education
      • Environment
      • Home Affairs
      • Transport
      • World
    • Politics
    • Opinion
    • Lifestyle
      • All
      • Culture
      • Dance
      • Food
      • Music
      • Poetry
      • Recipes
      • Sport
      Nostell Priory, Wakefield

      Glastonbury? What’s Glastonbury? When the music world came to Wakefield

      Headingley Cricket Stadium

      A view from the Roses match: is everything ‘rosey’ in English cricket?

      Bettys' Fat Rascals

      Scallywags, scoundrels and rascals abound in Yorkshire (we do like our scones)

      'Woke' beliefs

      Woke and proud: Compassion must never be allowed to go out of fashion

      Eurovision 2022 stage - photo by Michael Doherty on Wikimedia Commons licensed by CC BY-SA 4.0

      What does Ukraine’s Eurovision win tell us about the politics of solidarity?

      Red Ladder

      Climbing the Red Ladder – bringing theatre to the community

      Kaiser Chiefs in Doncaster

      Kaiser Chiefs never miss a beat in Doncaster

      Bradford Council leader Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, second from right, is joined by Keighley Creative representatives, from left, Georgina Webster, Jan Smithies and Gemma Hobbs.

      Bradford announced as City of Culture 2025

      Queen cakes fit for a Queen

      Queen Cakes fit for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

      • Food
      • Music
      • Poetry
      • Sport
    • Business
      • All
      • Economy
      • Technology
      • Trade
      Freya Osment from Northern Gas Networks

      International Women in Engineering Day 2022

      Rail strikes

      Millions affected by biggest rail strike action in 30 years

      conservative party

      The Conservative Party: fiscally irresponsible and ideologically incapable of addressing the current crises

      Yorkshire cows

      British farmers are being offered a lump sum payment to leave the industry – but at what cost to agriculture?

      cost-of-living-crisis-in-voluntary-sector

      Cost-of-living crisis looming for the voluntary sector

      Money on the floor - £20 notes

      The huge cost of Brexit is being seriously understated

      Financial problems

      Surge in bad debt and late payments indicate mounting business distress in Yorkshire

      An evening photo tour of Drax power station near Selby, North Yorkshire, with excellent light towards sunset.

      Winter blackouts and rationing for six million homes as government plans for disruption to energy supply

      Jar with money cascading out of it

      Boosterism doesn’t put food on the table

      Trending Tags

        • Economy
        • Technology
        • Trade
      • Region
      No Result
      View All Result
      Yorkshire Bylines
      No Result
      View All Result
      Home News Health

      Chilling effects of covid and the impact on democracy

      The key principles of rule of law, democracy and respect for fundamental rights must prevail, even in a state of public emergency.

      Professor Juliet LodgebyProfessor Juliet Lodge
      19-11-2021 07:05
      in Health, Politics, World
      a photo of a sign that says abuse of power comes as no surprise

      Photo by Samantha Sophia on Unsplash

      501
      VIEWS
      Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
      ADVERTISEMENT

      The prime minister kicked off the week with a warning about an imminent “blizzard” of covid infections sweeping from Europe across this pristine island. His choice of words distracted both from the facts of covid rates in the UK, and from what Europe has to say about covid.

      Spoiler alert: the EU’s member governments have a lot to say about boosters and covid-inhibiting measures. What they say, and how they frame it, differs significantly from what is said by spokespeople in the UK.

      In fact, when the Netherlands, France and Norway just introduced new partial lockdowns, Austria announced a regionally based lockdown for those refusing inoculation on the grounds that the democratic freedoms of the majority of vaccinated people should not be compromised by the unvaccinated.

      Covid and democracy

      When the pandemic started, governments across the globe brought in emergency legislation to curb our individual freedoms for the sake of the greater good. We accepted crisis measures.

      We got used to masking, social distancing, and not seeing relatives and friends. We stopped demonstrating. We accepted working from home, self-isolation and not going clubbing, or to the gym or hairdressers.

      Temporary emergency measures are not meant to be extended indefinitely. Nor are they supposed to be misused to allow governments to do more-or-less what they like with minimal parliamentary scrutiny and objections from the public. And this is what the European parliament has just told all the EU governments.

      Photo by Simon Rae on Unsplash
      Politics

      How fragile is our democracy?

      byWilliam Wallace
      25 January 2021

      End restrictions, not democracy

      The arguments in favour of ending emergency measures focus on the costs to democracy of perpetuating the kind of restrictions that have little to do with protecting public health, but which rely on the pandemic to justify the extension of government and police powers.

      So Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) ended last week by reminding governments that even in a state of public emergency, the key principles of the rule of law, democracy and respect for fundamental rights must prevail. They said that all emergency measures must be subject to three general conditions: necessity, proportionality, and temporariness.

      They called on governments to consider exiting the state of emergency. They reminded them of the need to uphold democracy and the rule of law by ensuring appropriate parliamentary and independent judicial scrutiny of what governments are doing.

      They also insisted that demonstrations should not be banned in order to allow governments to evade proper public scrutiny. And have repeatedly warned of the chilling effect on democracy of governments dodging journalists’ questions, inhibiting the independence of the media, and failing to correct disinformation.

      They weren’t even talking about the UK.

      Step up David Davis

      This is a far cry from how the government and media describe the impact of covid in the UK. We hear constantly of death rates, PPE scandals and the run-down of the NHS. And to be fair David Davis, MP for Howden and Haltemprice, has tried to explain the threats to sustaining an independent judiciary from his government’s latest forays into curbing democracy. But there hasn’t been a debate here about covid’s impact on democracy.

      MEPs sent their resolution on how governments must behave in pandemics to international organisations that the UK is in, including the UN, the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. So the UK government cannot claim to be unaware that MEPs have a very dim view of the real harm that governments do by misusing emergency laws to cement their power base and trivialise parliaments.

      Long story short: MEPs are not persuaded that extending emergency powers again would be a proportionate, adequate or necessary response to the current ‘blizzard’ of cases. MEPs are concerned that governments are abusing their powers at the expense of parliament, citizens, minorities and anyone who disagrees with them.

      Curbing freedom to speak freely

      Britain’s current approach to media pluralism would not survive MEPs’ scrutiny. They insist that the best way to fight disinformation is to protect and ensure the right to information and freedom of expression – support media pluralism and independent journalism.

      In the case of covid, MEPs unambiguously insist that this means governments should not only give citizens comprehensive, up-to-date, precise and objective information and data concerning the public health situation and measures taken to control it, but that they must fight disinformation that aims to discredit or distort scientific knowledge.

      Further, they must protect freedom of expression and not criminalise journalists or health care whistle-blowers. MEPs feel that governments undermine trust in democracy whenever they fail to combat fake news and hate speech, or dodge unpalatable questions.

      "House of Commons Chamber: Bench detail" by UK Parliament
      Health

      The mood of the house: covid legislation extended

      byJulia Lawrence-Chant
      24 October 2021

      What do they want?

      Such is the suspicion that governments cannot be trusted to respect parliamentary democracy and the rule of law, that MEPs want the EU Commission urgently to commission an independent and comprehensive evaluation of the measures taken during the ‘first wave’ of the pandemic in order to share best practices and enhance cooperation.

      They want to ensure that measures taken during subsequent waves of the pandemic are effective, targeted, well justified on the basis of the specific epidemiological situation, strictly necessary and proportionate. Above all, they are alert to and want to limit the corrosive impact on democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights.

      MEPs want independent oversight of democratic practice in the various countries by independent experts on democracy, and the rule of law and fundamental rights in decision making. They suggest using the expertise of, and proactively consulting, a broad range of experts and stakeholders, including National Human Rights Institutions, ombudsmen and civil society, and learning from the Venice Commission on such issues when taking new measures.

      Where does the UK fit?

      Would the UK government embrace or recoil from such oversight? As the evidenced allegations of sleaze multiply, now could be a good time to begin long overdue soul-searching about the nature of British democracy.

      Tags: CoronavirusDemocracyEquality
      ADVERTISEMENT
      Previous Post

      Northern outhouse rail project replaces levelling up with levelling down

      Next Post

      Brexit has become the Conservative Party’s sacred cow

      Professor Juliet Lodge

      Professor Juliet Lodge

      Juliet has worked as professor of European integration and EU politics in universities in New Zealand, the EU and UK – including in Yorkshire. Her research spans biometrics, AI and EU affairs, on which she has given expert evidence to many parliaments and to the EU. She also worked as a freelance writer for newspapers both here and abroad. She was elected EU woman of Europe for her voluntary work with communities, and supports freedom of movement and EU reform.

      Related Posts

      Conservative Party Meeting
      Politics

      Hypocrisy, desperation and excuses: Conservative Party clutch at straws over by-election losses

      bySue Wilson MBE
      27 June 2022
      10/05/2022 Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the House of Commons. Picture by Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street
      Politics

      The country needs more than just ‘Booting Boris out of Downing Street’

      byDr Stella Perrott
      26 June 2022
      Emmanuel Macron
      Politics

      French parliamentary elections 2022: shockwaves across the Channel

      byAnn Moody
      25 June 2022
      March for women
      Politics

      Women of Wakefield: people power only works if the people use that power

      byProfessor Juliet Lodge
      24 June 2022
      your vote matters wakefield by-election
      Politics

      Spotlight on some of the smaller parties in the Wakefield by-election

      byWill Barber Taylor
      22 June 2022
      Next Post
      Brexit_the Tory_Party's_sacred_cow

      Brexit has become the Conservative Party’s sacred cow

      Want to support us?

      Can you help Yorkshire Bylines to grow and become more sustainable with a regular donation, no matter how small?  

      DONATE

      Sign up to our newsletter

      If you would like to receive the Yorkshire Bylines regular newsletter, straight talking direct to your inbox, click the button below.

      NEWSLETTER

      LATEST

      Conservative Party Meeting

      Hypocrisy, desperation and excuses: Conservative Party clutch at straws over by-election losses

      27 June 2022
      Nostell Priory, Wakefield

      Glastonbury? What’s Glastonbury? When the music world came to Wakefield

      26 June 2022
      10/05/2022 Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the House of Commons. Picture by Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street

      The country needs more than just ‘Booting Boris out of Downing Street’

      26 June 2022
      Emmanuel Macron

      French parliamentary elections 2022: shockwaves across the Channel

      25 June 2022

      MOST READ

      10/05/2022 Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the House of Commons. Picture by Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street

      The country needs more than just ‘Booting Boris out of Downing Street’

      26 June 2022
      Conservative Party Meeting

      Hypocrisy, desperation and excuses: Conservative Party clutch at straws over by-election losses

      27 June 2022
      Nostell Priory, Wakefield

      Glastonbury? What’s Glastonbury? When the music world came to Wakefield

      26 June 2022
      Photo credit Robert Sharp / englishpenLicensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

      The Davis Downside Dossier

      1 January 2021

      BROWSE BY TAGS

      antivaxxers Charity climate change Coronavirus Cost of living Creative industries Crime Cummings Democracy Devolution education Equality Farming Fishing hgv History Immigration Johnson Journalism Labour Local Democracy Mental Health mining money NHS NI Protocol omicron Pies pollution poverty PPE Public Health Review shortage social media Starmer tax travel Ukraine Yorkshire
      Yorkshire Bylines

      Yorkshire Bylines is a regional online newspaper that supports citizen journalism. Our aim is to publish well-written, fact-based articles and opinion pieces on subjects that are of interest to people in Yorkshire and beyond.

      Learn more about us

      No Result
      View All Result
      • Contact
      • About
      • Letters
      • Donate
      • Privacy
      • Bylines network
      • Shop

      © 2022 Yorkshire Bylines. Citizen Journalism | Local & Internationalist

      No Result
      View All Result
      • Home
      • News
        • Brexit
        • Education
        • Environment
        • Health
        • Home Affairs
        • Transport
        • World
      • Politics
      • Opinion
      • Lifestyle
        • Culture
        • Dance
        • Food
        • Music
        • Poetry
        • Recipes
        • Sport
      • Business
        • Economy
        • Technology
        • Trade
      • Donate
      • The Compendium of Cabinet Codebreakers
      • The Davis Downside Dossier
      • The Digby Jones Index
      • Newsletter sign up
      • Cartoons by Stan
      • Authors

      © 2022 Yorkshire Bylines. Citizen Journalism | Local & Internationalist

      Welcome Back!

      Login to your account below

      Forgotten Password?

      Retrieve your password

      Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

      Log In