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Victoria Derbyshire is not a criminal

She shouldn’t have to apologise for saying she’d see family at Christmas

spiked

Topics Covid-19 Politics UK

Covid hysteria takes no prisoners.

Its latest victim is TV presenter and journalist Victoria Derbyshire, who apologised today after saying she would break the Rule of Six to see her family at Christmas.

— Victoria Derbyshire (@vicderbyshire) October 27, 2020

Derbyshire had previously told the Radio Times that she hoped to meet up with family members at Christmas, and that if the Rule of Six is still in place by then, ‘we’re breaking it to have the rule of seven. We just are.’ Among the family members she wants to see are her elderly mother and her husband’s elderly father.

Derbyshire has now said she was speaking hypothetically, and accepted she was ‘totally wrong’. She has promised to obey the rules.

But she need not have apologised. She was simply saying what millions of people up and down the country have been thinking in recent weeks. Namely, that if restrictions on household mixing are still in place come December, they will break the rules to see their families. And it would be completely understandable if they did so.

Consider, for example, the large numbers of elderly and vulnerable people who have been unable to see friends and family for months. They will, no doubt, be desperate to meet with loved ones over the festive season. To deny them this right in the name of keeping them safe would be inhumane.

The prospect of seeing your family at Christmas being illegal is horrifying. The public, rightly, won’t stand for it.

Picture by: Getty.

To enquire about republishing spiked’s content, a right to reply or to request a correction, please contact the managing editor, Viv Regan.

Topics Covid-19 Politics UK

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