So Novak Djokovic has been deported from Down Under.
I’m not interested in whether he broke any rules or not, because those rules should never have existed – and as time progresses, the ‘othering’ of vaccine refuseniks is becoming alarmingly nasty. No, what interests me is that Australia is supposed to be a part of the western culture – that of liberty and rule of law. Yet we have seen what happened here in Britain magnified in Australia, with the police violently cracking down, people being locked up in camps and now this. This case may have been about a famous person trying to subvert the rules (if he was doing that) but it is a window into what has been happening to ordinary people in the guise of public health.
The excuse given for cancelling his visa is that he is some sort of public heath risk. This is risible nonsense, just as the claims that vaccine refuseniks are some sort of plague carriers and that covid is akin to the black death. All of it is bollocks, yet the politicians, media and their advisors are peddling this outrageous lie for all it’s worth – even in the face of contrary evidence that their narrative is collapsing (maybe because of that).
This isn’t about health, it’s about a power grab. The cancelling of Djokovic’s visa is a message to others about who has the power and that they intend to keep it. No, it is not about health at all, it is purely a nasty, spiteful reminder about who is in charge and don’t you forget it.
Which brings me back to the title of this piece. Whatever did happen to the larrikins? Because Australia could do with a few of them right now.
Come June, we’ll have been in Australia for 20 years. From the outset, it was clear that the notion that Australia is the home of loveable, free spirited rogues is a myth. Quite the opposite, as the pandemic has revealed, a significant proportion of Australians are sanctimonious, mean spirited conformists.
A classical example of the stupidity of the Australian nanny state is this: in Queensland, pubs have Designated Outdoor Smoking Areas, if I want to sit in a DOSA with a couple of smoking mates, I could be fined if I consume a packet of crisps.
This is modern Australia:
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/mateship-doesnt-seem-to-exist-when-it-comes-to-face-masks/news-story/47832854ee423ddd53c37739569a8fa6
Jesus, that writer is seriously deranged. And the weight of science does not support the wearing of masks, despite the pretty little graphics.
“Whatever did happen to the larrikins?”
They’re all here –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzfJGC1_yPo
As someone once said and Australian friends keeping reminding me, Australians are also the descendants of the gaolers we shipped out there alongside the convicts.