Covid Clampdown And Allison Pearson

So when alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson addresses the Commons later today, he is expected to tell MPs that there will be new restrictions across England to stem the rise in Covid-19 infections. Working from home will be encouraged; social distancing will be back to 2m where possible; bars and restaurants will have to close by 2200 hours and offer only table service (which they should have been doing anyway).

The thought occurs that this is not the most draconian set of measures, and certainly not a great hardship for many. Not could it be construed as impinging on civil liberties. But for pundit Allison Pearson, still with a berth at the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph, it is the very end of the world as she knows it.

So she has gone off on one, RTing every contrarian voice she can find, including some she might have been better advised avoiding. There was Matt Ridley, the man who bust Northern Rock, claiming “This well argued letter needs to be taken seriously” as he quote Tweeted Karol Sikora. There was also self-promoting right-wing nobody Emily Hewertson.

So desperate was Ms Pearson that she RTd someone called Helen Haynes. Who has a bio with the hashtag #WWG1WGA. That’s a white supremacist. One has to assume that it was haste rather than consideration that drove the inclusion. The same thought enters with her RTing someone claiming “facemasks do relatively nothing” and “This pandemic is over. Only an individual successfully terrified by MSM & Govt would say otherwise”.

It isn’t over. It really isn’t: Spain, France and even Russia are reporting surges of new infections. But on drones Ms Pearson. “Your daily reminder that life is pretty much back to normal in Austria, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Germany. Concerts, audiences, spectators! Our hysterical, deceitful response is a major national embarrassment”. That’s why Austria went on the quarantine list recently, then. But do go on.

“No one on the local news understands the science. Prepared to do as they’re told, sacrifice family, businesses, even though it’s pointless”. Pub shuts at 2200 hours, table service only, end of the world is nigh. Have another go. “In the UK, tobacco kills 13 people an hour. Over 300 a day. So the Government wants to destroy the economy to prevent 200 (worst case) Covid deaths a day. Why not ban smoking?”.

An unchecked pandemic will deliver far bigger death tolls. Perhaps Madam would care to do nothing and watch it happen? But there is more. “Even [Michael Gove] failing today to make silk purses out of sows’ ears. Why are things back to nearly normal in so many other countries? Mounting dismay amongst Conservatives”. Not back to normal (see above).

And it must be someone else’s fault, so who would Ms Pearson care to nominate? Ah yes, the bloke who warned us about it earlier this year. “Neil Ferguson is responsible for one of the biggest own goals in British history. His reputation is mud. Yet still the BBC gives him a platform”. Thus Allison Pearson proceeds through the looking glass.

Ms Pearson is entitled to her own opinion. But not to her own facts. End of story.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by adding to its Just Giving page at

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/zelostreet7