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Sinead Quinn refuses to close her business due to the pandemic, despite being fined by the police. For some she is a heroine, for others irresponsible.
Seeking to circumvent government-imposed restrictions on coronavirus, some British traders use the Magna Carta, the founding text of modern democracy, as a justification for staying open, even if the police disagree.
The Magna Carta was signed on June 15, 1215 by King John Landless of England under pressure from rebel barons who wanted to limit royal power.
And Sinead Quinn, a hairdresser from Bradford, in the north of the country, invoked that famous historical text to oppose the closure of her business during her imprisonment, becoming the heroine of more than one on social networks.
The police fined him 17,000 pounds ($ 22,000, 19,000 euros) for keeping his salon open against the measures imposed by the government of Boris Johnson in England for four weeks from 5 November to 2 December.
“I’m not breaking any law”
Quinn regularly posts images of her clashes with local authorities and police representatives on Instagram. “I don’t accept any fines,” he tells a policeman in a recently released video.
“I don’t break any laws. I run my business under common law,” he says.
In another publication, the hairdresser refers to “section 61” of the Magna Carta to defend “the right to object to the law if we believe we are being unjustly governed”.
Local authorities have called his attitude “selfish and irresponsible” at a time when all of England is under restrictions to curb the pandemic, which has killed more than 57,000 people in the UK, the highest toll of any European country .
But Quinn isn’t alone: Other rogue merchants who rely on the Magna Carta to stay open include a tattoo shop in Bristol and a children’s playroom in Liverpool.
In all cases, the authorities ignored their arguments and reminded them that they are governed by the current law and not by that of 800 years ago.
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