I’m glad Jean Rose managed not to swear in her letter of April 1 (“Trust science”), in which she launched a broadside against letter-writers Gabriel Millar and Elizabeth Smith. Their crime? – to dare to question the dissent-free propaganda-narrative about the C-virus, which the mainstream media, not least the BBC, have been showering us with this past month or so.

I know enough about both the history of science, and the litany of examples throughout history where the scientists of the day have got things completely wrong, to hold an open-minded scepticism about these issues. And I also know that there is a very considerable minority of people who are highly sceptical about the official propaganda-line we’re incessantly being fed by the mainstream media – with not a single dissenting voice being allowed anywhere near these media organs.

One of the key aspects of a democracy is that all viewpoints must be heard, so that citizens have the best chance of reaching the right, proportionate decision about any given issue. This is decidedly not happening in the case of the C-virus; and as I write, nearly 170,000 people have already signed a petition expressing grave concerns about the recent emergency Coronavirus Bill that essentially gives the government carte blanche to introduce what is effectively marshall law – for two years!

This new law enables forced detention and isolation for any amount of time, and the authorities can forcibly take biological samples from your body – forced vaccination, here we come?... Moreover, on radio phone-ins, callers are vociferously calling for the army to “round up” anyone “breaking the rules”, and for new face-recognition technology to be used to punish severely anyone “breaking the rules”.

I have a friend who has just read George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984 for the first time – and the parallels between what’s in that iconic book and what’s unfolding now are concerning, if not terrifying.

Like Jean Rose, I’m also concerned that my letter won’t be published – in my case, because, like Ms Millar and Smith, I’m daring to challenge the unrelenting narrative about the C-virus, and inviting people to be open-minded and to think for themselves, rather than robotically accepting everything they’re being told by “the experts”, and thus allowing an epidemic of fear-mongering to rule unchallenged.

I applaud the SNJ for daring to present readers’ divergent views on this issue, and for thus enabling the good people of Stroud to hear a range of viewpoints. Anything less means we’re on the slippery slope to authoritarianism.

Dr Richard House

Stroud