For the past few months, leaders all over the world have told their citizens to stay at home in order to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. But more and more of them are being caught ignoring these restrictions without serious consequences.
In March 2020, MP Dominic Cummings was caught driving his possibly COVID-19-afflicted family from London to his vulnerable parents in Durham. This occurred less than a week after the British government issued a national lockdown and urged the public to ‘Stay at Home, Protect the NHS, and Save Lives’.
Restrictions are still being ignored
Perhaps it could have been in some way understandable that people chose to ignore restrictions at the beginning of the pandemic when the consequences of doing so were not clear but world leaders are still ignoring them now – even as the number of people with the disease, and more poignantly those dying from it, continues to increase.
In September 2020, the Scottish MP Margaret Ferrier was arrested by police and charged with breaching coronavirus restrictions. Scottish Police told The Guardian that Ferrier had been charged “in connection with alleged culpable and reckless conduct” for reportedly failing to observe the regulations limiting travel and social contact.
And this does not only happen in the UK. On the 20 December, the Swedish Prime Minister, Stefan Löfven, was seen in a shopping centre in central. Even though there was no law in place that prohibited people from visiting shopping centres, he had, only a few days prior, pleaded that the Swedish people not visit shops unless they required essential items.
A few days after Christmas, Swedish lawyer and civil servant Dan Eliasson, was caught flying to his daughter in the Canary Islands which he later claimed was essential “for family reasons“. When asked what these reasons were, he simply said that he celebrated Christmas with his family there.
Did they face any consequences?
But even if the shopping centre Löfven visited was empty, or if the trip Eliasson made was essential, these events do not paint a good example for the rest of the nation, or even the world, to follow. When leaders are strict in encouraging other people to follow restrictions and then choose not to themselves, or have staff ignore them without consequences, this creates a mix of jealousy and rage in people that will likely prompt them to imitate their leaders and break the rules themselves.
Since her arrest, Ferrier, although having managed to keep her job, has been sitting as an independent MP in the House of Commons since 1 October after the SNP decided to withdraw the whip from her. This continued until the investigation had finished.
On coming home from his holiday, Eliasson was forced to resign from his position but he will now serve as a general director of the emergency management agency.
These are just a few examples of the many times officials have been caught breaking the restrictions for personal reasons but if they don’t appear capable of following their own rules, how could they possible expect it of their people?
Alice Sjöberg
Featured image courtesy of Edwin Hooper of Unsplash. Image licence found here. No changes were made to this image.