A Hairdresser quoting Magna Carta to avoid lockdown closure has been fined £17k – 7 responses

Jamie Jones. Updated November 25th, 2020

Back at the beginning of November, some advice regarding a sneaky little way to get around lockdown rules started circulating around Twitter.

Someone wrongly – very wrongly – claimed that quoting the 805-year-old Magna Carta would allow your business to remain open during lockdown closures. Surely no one would believe this, right?

A hairdresser in Bradford put a sign in her window saying she'd stay open during lockdown on the basis of Magna Carta. So the police fined her £1,000. She kept quoting Magna Carta. So they fined her £2,000. She kept quoting Magna Carta. Now she's at £17k. https://t.co/RpgP6n19s7

— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) November 24, 2020

These are the only 7 responses you need:

The signing of Magna Carta 1215: pic.twitter.com/WNSHhvpuoP

— Mark Blacklock (@MarxMedia) November 24, 2020

Can’t believe this didn’t work, wtf. Next they’ll be telling me the East India Company Act of 1697 doesn’t entitle me to free samosas https://t.co/JVDxa9w40q

— Alex von Tunzelmann (@alexvtunzelmann) November 24, 2020

Apparently if you look in the mirror and say "Magna Carta" five times, everything you do is legal.

— Mike Stafford (@faithfulpundit) November 24, 2020

Magna Carta, from the Latin "magna" = "Great big" and "carta" = "fine" https://t.co/4eFiyeBNgn

— Moose Allain Ꙭ (@MooseAllain) November 24, 2020

Anyone who uses Magna Carta to justify breaking a modern law should be made to recite the whole document from memory, since they’re so fucking well versed.

— Shoes Buttback (@DanMakesNoises) November 24, 2020

Hint: if thou must needs cite the Magna Carta to flout the lockdown rules, thou shouldst also insist on trial by combat. With a mace.

— William Shakespeare (@Shakespeare) November 24, 2020

OK Facebook got the Magna Carta thing wrong but Bill Gates is definitely putting microchips in the vaccine and there’s a whole other civilisation of advanced beings living in the hollow centre of the earth and Brexit is a great idea and 5G causes something or other. https://t.co/6SkZJw5gtN

— Stephen Mangan (@StephenMangan) November 24, 2020

In conclusion:

I feel weirdly sorry for her! This is what happens when you spend too long in an online world watching brainrot videos insisting you can proclaim yourself a free man of the land… without realising that eventually the real world is going to hit you with a court summons.

— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) November 24, 2020