United Kingdom

“I understand the civil liberties argument about the response to Covid. In normal times we should always be looking to strike a balance between individual freedom and the common good. But under the current circumstances, the notion of the common good has to take precedence, until we are all of us free to exercise our individual liberties in an environment where the threat of infection is manageable.

“And for an historian to have such a weak grasp of the effect that the Second World War had on individual liberties is shocking. Oliver constantly refers to that conflict without recognising that it required the whole population of the UK to put up with having their personal freedoms curtailed in order to defeat the threat of Nazism.

“For some, this meant having to tolerate the rationing of food and clothes, but for others it meant enlisting into the forces, being told what to do and where to go for several years and, for some, making the ultimate sacrifice. Is there any greater example of the notion of the common good?

“By seeking to dress his reckless individualism up in the uniform of those who served in the Second World War, Oliver has betrayed the sacrifices of that generation and shamed his own profession.”

https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/billy-bragg-pens-perfect-response-to-shameful-neil-oliver-clip-284290/