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DAVID AARONOVITCH

Covid’s given us a nasty case of illiberalism

Voters may have rejected populist leaders for mishandling the pandemic but our belief in civil rights is being eroded too

The Times

Last week viewers of the post-Andrew Neil TV station GB News were treated to his replacement, Nigel Farage, on a non-jolly to snowy Belgrade. Farage was there to give comfort to the Djokovic family in their moment of tribulation.

It was Farage’s strongly held view, even before Novak Djokovic’s deportation, that the unvaxed tennis star was being appallingly treated by the Australian authorities. “I’m sad to say this,” he said, sadly, “Australia is becoming an authoritarian country where there is no freedom of choice.”

Farage was expressing a popular view. Popular in Serbia that is, where Djokovic’s detention was being compared to the crucifixion. Everywhere else, however, it wasn’t at all popular. In Oz, a land usually admired by Farage for its robust anti-wokeness and