Operation Fear -- this time as a Foucault farce

If you thought Project Fear was bad enough over the three years of the Brexit campaign, then what on earth do you make of Project Corona Fear?

It has now assumed the most incredible dimensions with a libertarian Tory government threatening more and more Draconian measures and pushing more and more ludicrous advice backed by threats.

Fans of Foucault will know that the disciplinary regimes in modern capitalism focus on individuals policing themselves through an unrealistic fear of reprisals,and then, best of all, guilt. The modern penitentiary was the best institution to illustrate those practices, but there was also the clinic and the family. Baudrillard famously claimed that all that was so exaggerated and depended on such a centralised mobilisation of power that we could just forget it. I think Foucault might be playing a blinder in the second half.

It would be wearisome to actually reference all the stories. Many are found in the Times and Sunday Times. My copy today contained strong advice about what to do even in self isolation — stay 2 m apart from your loved ones, sleep in separate rooms, use separate bathrooms and towels if possible. It did not actually specify that this should be for people who actually have the infection already. The information does not distinguish the two categories either, so EVERYONE is under suspicion.

Boris Johnson banning sex — whoever would have thought it?.

The Guardian seems to relish the latest details:

Hancock accuses those still socialising in UK of being 'very selfish' 

The health secretary said stricter rules such as curfews or further closures could come into place “very soon” and urged people still socialising or going to holiday locations to “stop it, and if you don’t stop it then we’re going to have to take more measures”....“It is incredibly important that people stay more than two metres away from others wherever they are or stay at home wherever possible.

Classic self-policing here. How did a 2 metre gap come to be so 'incredibly important'. (NB it is escalating daily -- already 'more than 2 m'). Does that imply only face-to-face?  Why not 5 metres? Is 1:9 m safe if we stand at right angles? Should I feel guilty if I still work in Imperial measures?

UK could face Italy-style lockdown, warns Boris Johnson 

The public must stop congregating in public or face new coronavirus enforcement measures within 24 hours, Boris Johnson has said, amid growing concern that his previous attempts to encourage social distancing were being ignored...with London mayor Sadiq Khan and northern Ireland’s first minister Arlene Foster both endorsing stricter enforcement of the guidelines, and former northern Ireland secretary Julian Smith saying he would support any measure [sic!] that would force people to follow the guidelines.

Jury trials on hold in England and Wales due to coronavirus fears 

 Teacher assessment is replacing examinations so maybe judge-assesment will do instead?

Activists are turning to helping elderly and vulnerable people locally. It’s a political model that we should stick to

Here's your toilet roll, Mrs Danby, now let me tell you all about Jeremy Corbyn -- no, don't shut the door

Lockdown London: how much of the fabric of life can you take away before things fall apart? 

Classic npb stuff here: 

 I spent the first half-hour of Friday morning looking up competing dictionary definitions of the word  “persistent” [not caring for his wife, making breakfast, deep cleaning the cat basket, washing his hands]. My wife had woken up coughing...

[We are having a frightful time] trying to move around cities without touching handrails, occupying imaginary two-metre bubbles in the park, coveting bottles of hand sanitiser, leafleting vulnerable neighbours for shopping orders, lying awake worrying about the rent or mortgage, planning garden projects, sharing lectures in epidemiology [I bet -- tweets more likely] and crying over cancelled exams... cajoling parents and grandparents to stay indoors, keeping hands away from faces [cf banning masturbation as 'self-abuse'], going through stockpiled food too quickly, scrapping over loo roll [!], taking our temperatures, trusting official advice and not trusting official advice....my Twitter feed [I thought so] had been so full of outrage about people “carrying on as normal”...that I was moved to drive around the streets near where I live in London – through Camden and Islington and Holloway – to witness this “new Luftwaffe” [!] for myself.

In this new reality, everything can seem like a portent....Tone becomes an issue. How do you check in with a friend who may or may not have lost their livelihood overnight?...I’m a catastrophiser anyway...The Portuguese waitress [I thought you were not supposed to go to cafes?], chatting about what it all might mean, and still hopeful that they could get through, had recommended I read José Saramago’s fable Blindness

 These people urged us to Remain!

And finally:

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