No, Magna Carta Does Not Allow Firms To Defy Covid Curbs

Faizan Hashmi Published November 27, 2020 | 07:20 PM

London, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Nov, 2020 ) :Does Magna Carta supercede England's coronavirus regulations and allow businesses to stay open during lockdowns? In a word, no, but a handful of firms have been standing on their own interpretation of ancient liberties.

Invoking the landmark English charter of 1215, one hairdresser near Bradford in northern England has become a cause celebre among social media libertarians after stacking up fines totalling �17,000 ($23,000).

Sinead Quinn has been posting regular Instagram updates of her confrontations with council officials and the police, as the fines mount for keeping her salon open this month despite a nationwide shutdown.

"I don't consent to any fine," she told one officer in a video earlier this month. "I'm not breaking any law. I'm operating my business under the common law." In another post, Quinn quoted "article 61" of Magna Carta to buttress her belief that "we have a right to enter into lawful dissent if we feel we are being governed unjustly".

The hairdresser is not alone. Among others invoking Magna Carta to stay open have been a tattoo parlour in Bristol, western England, and a children's soft-play centre in Liverpool, in the northwest.

In all the cases, law enforcers have taken a dim view, meting out fines and reminding all businesses that legislation of this year, not 800 years ago, is relevant and binding.

Kirklees Council said the actions of Quinn Blakey Hairdressing were "selfish and irresponsible", in a month when all of England was under lockdown to try to arrest a second wave of Covid-19.

If Quinn does not pay up and back down, a council spokesperson told AFP she faces "eventually prosecution".

In Liverpool, video of a standoff at the soft-play centre showed a police officer telling the owner: "Obviously, the Magna Carta didn't know about Covid-19."Self-appointed guardians of constitutional precedent are not wrong in pointing to Magna Carta as laying down important principles in English common law.