Kevin's leg, or lack of a leg, is currently the big topic of discussion in the Lyndon where we go for a lunchtime pint and chat with friends. Kevin, who is the youngest of our group, has been having problems for a few years. First it was decided, after various treatments by his medics, that he needed a partial amputation of his foot, then in recent times they decided it was time to remove his leg from below the knee. Just after Christmas his new prosthetic leg arrived and with the team currently training him to use it, in the not too distant future he will be walking, rather than wheeling himself into the pub.
Once we have all enquired and had a full report of how progress is going with Kevin's leg, naturally the conversation turns to current affairs and the ongoing disaster of being governed by Keir Starmer's floundering and hopeless Government. No doubt the same conversations are taking place over pints in pubs all over the country, or those left open and managing to survive after the business destroying effect of robbing Rachel Reeves economy wrecking budget.
As our little group are all of the same mind there is usually consensus amongst us, which also includes the great majority of regulars in our favourite watering hole who are equally appalled by the disaster known as the Labour Government. No one objects to what we discuss should they overhear our often forthright comments. However, there is a fly in the ointment in the shape of Labour's Employment Rights Bill.
For many, on paper, this Bill looks as if it will protect the rights of workers and keep them safe, however, like much legislation that comes out of Parliament the devil is in the detail, and it is not good. As well as this Bill, if enacted, adding to the disaster of the National Insurance hike catastrophe which has already cost many their jobs, this Bill will be yet another nail in the coffin for employment. Not only that, it will also be a disaster for freedom of speech, as pointed out by the Free Speech Union.
It could, if this law is passed, find a couple of pals who nip into a pub for a quiet pint and chat, discover they are on the wrong side of events if another customer or one of the bar staff disagree with what they are discussing. They could be simply commenting on the fact that Donald Trump, in his inauguration speech, when he stated there are only two genders was spot on and it was good news that at last a world leader had some common sense. Should that private conversation be overheard by another, very woke customer who through lack of mental capacity, is convinced in the absolute certainty there are over fifty genders, despite the obvious facts that at birth infants can only be male or female, make a complaint to the pub landlord about what the two pals have said, then those two chaps could be told to drink up and go and never darken the pubs bar ever again! So much for freedom of speech.
With such a law as this in place people will be even more afraid to speak freely. Many already censor themselves in fear of being cancelled, or fret that if they click on and show they like something on social media they will get a midnight knock on the door from the very woke and P.C. plod, or even banged up in the clink for approving of a real fact that is no longer considered acceptable in this very strange world we now live in. Normal conversations in pubs and other places where people like to gather will be gone, it will be a case of bye bye banter.