Bel Mooney (pictured) revealed she would report her neighbours for flouting the rules of lockdown
YES
By Bel Mooney
Picture the scene: the country is in lockdown, all is unnaturally quiet — until I hear talk, laughter and the clink of glasses coming from the garden next door.
Since we live in the countryside they might think they can get away with a small social gathering. That I’d shake my head and tut…but is that really all I’d do?
Honestly, no. It’d go against my freedom-loving grain, but I’d have to notify the police. Would ratting on them make me a tell-tale creep? An informer, a grass, a squealer, a nark? It would. But for the right reasons.
And there is a reason, after all. Police are encouraging us all to tell them if we spot those around us breaking the strict new social distancing rules in order to keep everyone as safe as possible.
In a nation at war you might rightly report neighbours stockpiling black market goods (for example) because they would be breaking the law — and the rule of law matters more than ever in harsh, chaotic times. The tough realities of wartime necessitate difficult decisions.
So where are we now? In a state of perilous conflict with an invisible enemy. The analogy of war has been used many times since the start of the coronavirus pandemic and I understand why. Since we have already seen how unforgivably stupid many people are, failing to comply with social distancing and other guidelines, the language used to describe this crisis cannot pull punches.
This is deadly serious and the frontline is the National Health Service and all who are fighting to save lives. They are begging us to stay home. And that is enough for me. Why should selfish individuals who think only of their own pleasure be allowed to get away with it? Would it be right to stand by?
I’d be a grass, a squealer – for the right reasons
No. In these extraordinary circumstances, I firmly believe personal liberty is less important than the public good.
If, in normal times, those same neighbours were having a loud party and keeping my grandchildren awake, my first action would be to phone them and ask them to keep it down. If they continued to disturb the peace, then yes, I’d get on the phone and snitch.
What we’re discussing now goes far beyond personal inconvenience. It concerns public morality, not just personal. If there was even a small party next door, and one of those people unknowingly had coronavirus, the rate of likely infection could spread out like the ripples in a pond. And it would be everyone’s duty to tell whoever they had to, in order to stop it.
NO
Emily Hill (pictured) said people should focus on their own actions, rather than looking to blame others
By Emily Hill
Am I the only one who was taught as a child not to snitch? Aged about eight, I vividly remember ratting on a classmate to a teacher in my mother’s presence and Mum shooting me the sort of look that meant I’d never, ever do that again. And I’ll be sticking to it.
We live in a free country. But right now, in order to stay alive, we are accepting radical restrictions on our freedom. That makes sense; but I still believe we mustn’t turn ourselves into the sort of state snoopers the Stasi would have loved. Some police are just taking it too far. One force in Humberside has now set up an online portal so people can tip them off about any gathering of more than two people.
In Derbyshire, police have gone even further. Aware that people were taking pretty pictures of Buxton’s Blue Lagoon, officers poured black dye in it. Informed that solitary walkers were still driving to the Peak District to take their exercise, they sent up drones to follow and shame them.
Have they gone completely mad? If we’re really following government advice we shouldn’t have any idea what anyone else is doing. I live in Wandsworth, South London — which has the dubious honour of being the fourth highest area of coronavirus contagion in the UK — and am selfisolating in my tiny flat because I have chronic asthma. This means I haven’t actually got a solitary clue what my neighbours are up to.
And even if I did suspect one of them was taking a ‘second run’ today, the last thing I’d do is dial 101 to dob them in, as some neighbourhood zealots have done.
Zealots are calling 101 if you go for a second run
There have even been stories on Twitter of cyclists being pulled off their bikes and mums chastised for buying a bunch of ‘non-essential’ daffodils with their food shop. Then again, I wouldn’t know — because I’ve been stuck in my flat.
Right now the overwhelming majorityof people are doing their best in difficult circumstances. Fighting the virus is essential, but so is maintaining basic human freedoms. We need to concentrate on our own actions rather than looking to blame others — imagining that we can see into their guilty souls, and reporting them for minor infractions.
Supreme Court judge Lord Sumption injected a little sanity back into the discussion when he said: ‘The police have no power to enforce ministers’ preferences but only legal regulations, which don’t go anything like as far as the Government’s guidance … wrecking beauty spots in the fells so people don’t want to go there is frankly disgraceful.’ If we enable, encourage and urge the police along this path, then no matter how afraid we are, I fear we’re acting disgracefully, too.