Ex-officer tells James O'Brien 'stay local' Covid rule is 'unenforceable'
13 January 2021, 14:41
Ex-police officer tells James O'Brien Covid rules are "unenforceable"
This retired officer tells James O'Brien that the "stay local" Covid rule is "unenforceable" due to the legislation failing to outline the distance this means.
It comes after the Home Secretary defended Boris Johnson’s decision to go on a bike ride seven miles from his No 10 home on Sunday, but she also stressed the importance of people staying local.
She told journalists the rules are "very very clear" yet said that local "could not be defined", giving a response which James branded "word salad" due to its "lack of clarity."
James asked why the rules have been relaxed and ex-officer Colin offered the reason behind this was because "people are tired" as this has been in place for nearly a year, and the Government are trying to appease the public.
"The rules aren't very clear," Colin said, pointing out that unlike England, Ireland has defined "local" as five kilometres.
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He continued: "If we haven't defined what local is, how can you say someone's broken the rules when we don't know what the rules are?"
Referring to the two women fined for going on a country walk, he said: "From the legal perspective, those two cops up in Derbyshire did the right thing. The reason the tickets were got rid of simply because if they went to court, they'd be laughed out of court, you couldn't enforce them.
"It's not the cops that did anything wrong, it's basically because the laws are unenforceable."
Colin asked, "How can you enforce a law when you don't know what the law is?"
James added, "How can a police officer enforce the law when their ultimate boss the Home Secretary doesn't just not know what the law is, her understanding of what the law is is actually the opposite of what the law actually is."
