The fascist state

SENSIBLY, most Victorians are being vaccinated to prevent catching COVID and dying. Horrifyingly ironic, however, is the observation fear of Daniel Andrews’ “insane commands” that has now transcended the possibility of death and suffering from COVID (The shame of a police state”, Andrew Bolt, 20/9).

As Bolt so alarmingly highlights, Andrews’ “rules” are akin to “a Tsar sending in the Cossacks”, with people’s democratic right to protest nothing but a fallacious fraud.

During the mid-1970s, I lived and worked in fascist Spain under Franco, where fear of its police, the Guardia Civil, was palpable.

All protest against the government was banned as a threat to Franco’s power and control. The reality of life in Victoria these past 18 months chillingly fosters memories of my Spanish experience, as I fled the country after five months due to an altercation with a local policeman.

That a Victorian government can give “a huge shove” to a 70-plus woman of “slight build” so she falls backwards “hitting her head on the road” is a damning indictment of any government pretence calling itself democratic. But who now is “safe” protesting in our streets? At least we can still protest in print.