Did anyone else hear the sucking noise coming from the direction of Trafalgar Square last weekend? It was the sound of useful energy being siphoned away…

In another world, the UK public may have taken to the streets the day Rishi Sunak announced he'd give property owners a moratorium on mortgages but offered no moratorium for renters.

In another world, the UK public would protest the day government rejected a one-off payment to each and every citizen and instead chose to prop up the hospitality industry and foot the bill for those who still have jobs, to eat out cheaply throughout August.

In another world, the UK public would protest at the hypocrisy of the government's failure to enforce sensible rules which protect the ordinary worker in public spaces before imposing new unenforceable rules which invade our private spaces.

After 6 months of lockdown, I believed there may be a breaking point at which the British public would stand up and demand a fair deal. I thought there may be a resurgence of the spirit of the poll tax riots which lead to a 100% government backdown. For where there is a clear and measurable outcome, protest can be a powerful force for change.

But alas the public anger has been diluted. The anti-lockdown movement is a grab-bag of confusing, contradictory ideologies and twisted messages. It's become a heatsink for generalized discontent. Without focus or a clear vision for what they actually stand for collectively, along what they actually want to see, it's easy for the pertinent soundbite to be hijacked by a few vain men with chips on their shoulders who spout the age-old polarizing world view of a battle between good and evil.

Everyone's David Icke now.

A QE for the people would have capitalized upon a historical opportunity to re-shape the post-COVID19 future into a more equitable playing field and avoid the rinse and repeat of the 2008 banker bailouts which lead to the level of gross inequality we see today.

Instead, although those who attended the anti-lockdown rally may not be aware of it, if there were one message to be distilled from the event it would be;

"I'm not wearing a mask because the world is run by reptiles".

So well done anti-lockdown protesters. You've really "stuck it to the man".