The Government’s “grossly unethical” use of its “nudge unit” stoked fear among the public during the pandemic, psychologists have said – prompting MPs to launch an investigation into the Government’s Covid propaganda. The Telegraph has the story.
A group of psychologists have written to Parliament’s Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, warning that a team of civil servants dedicated to “nudging” public behaviour during the pandemic were unaccountable and unethical.
The letter’s 40 professional signatories – led by Dr. Gary Sidley, a retired clinical psychologist – said they opposed the use of dramatic adverts, which included slogans such as: “If you go out you can spread it, people will die.”
They also condemned the use of “images of the acutely unwell in intensive care units” on billboard and television adverts, as well as the “macabre mono focus on showing the number of COVID-19 deaths without mention of mortality from other causes or the fact that, under normal circumstances, around 1,600 people die each day in the U.K.”.
The signatories said it was “highly questionable whether a civilised society should knowingly increase the emotional discomfort of its citizens as a means of gaining their compliance”.
The letter added: “Government scientists deploying fear, shame and scapegoating to change minds is an ethically dubious practice that in some respects resembles the tactics used by totalitarian regimes such as China, where the state inflicts pain on a subset of its population in an attempt to eliminate beliefs and behaviour they perceive to be deviant.” …
The letter drew attention to a government memo from March 2020, which suggested that “the perceived level of personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent” and called for more frightening messaging.
The Telegraph understands that Parliament’s Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee will investigate the use of the Behavioural Insights Team as part of its investigation into the Government’s activities during the pandemic. It will coincide with the second anniversary of the first lockdown.
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
What frightens me is the realisation in recent years that there are many people among us who want to censor speech in a very big way. Powerful, influential policy makers who want this stuff
I grew up convinced that literally everyone thought free speech was unquestionably a good thing.
It pains me to realise I was.completely wrong.
Wholly agree.
What astounds me is that discussions around ‘free speech’ are now taking up so much of our time. Even as recently as twenty years ago free speech or lack of rarely came up for debate. Now? Not a day goes by where some organisation isn’t redefining ‘free speech’ and the redefinition is always against free speech even though it is a bloody certainty that the author maintains otherwise.
Ony two things to know about free speech (1) It’s free, and (2) It’s only speech.
What frightens me more is that lots of people I know seem to be quite happy with the idea that mis and dis information should be regulated/suppressed. Some of them I suspect because the prevailing orthodoxy coincides with their ideas, and some of them because they are lazy and want to outsource critical thinking to some “trusted” third party.
On discussing this kind of stuff with a friend who isn’t particularly interested in Politics because to him it is all boring stuff and he would prefer going to the football with his kids, going fishing or going off to a caravan with his Border Terrier, he said “Well you cannot go around calling people fat”———-I could not believe my ears. I said to him “It is not the proper role of government to be regulating what we can all say and cannot say to each other, they cannot even stop us stabbing each other or burgling each other and they cannot even stop morons walking into supermarkets and filling up their rucksack”
Good, small victories and all that. Hopefully McEntee and her ilk will be shown the door at the next election. Lots of ordinary Irish are *not* happy with the way things have gone in that country.
The abomination that is the piece of “art” described in the article is horrendously offensive to Christians like myself, and it is an affront that such an obviously deliberately provocative and mocking piece was considered suitable for public exhibition (let alone the fact that it is of no artistic merit).
How Ireland has fallen.
What has happened to the Weekly Sceptic podcast with Young and Dixon? Is it a summer break
No its all over. Mutual agreement apparently. Nick Dixon has his podcast “The Current Thing”
Oh thanks : I used to enjoy it
“Under the current iteration of the bill, it is a crime punishable by up to five years in jail to say anything, on- or offline, which anybody with a protected characteristic drawn from a long-list of such characteristics –race, religion, national or ethnic origin, gender (including transgender), etc. – perceives to be hateful”
WHAT?????????????????????????????????????????????? You have got to be joking? The general Public should NEVER EVER STAND FOR THIS TOTALTARIAN NIGHTMARE
Someone has decided to thumbs down me for my comment. That is fair enough as everyone is entitled to an opinion, but let us just be clear then that this person obviously thinks that if anyone “PERCEIVES” someone’s words to be hateful then it is automatically so and they should face imprisonment.–Anyone who thinks this is what should happen in a free society is a blithering idiot and so the person who down ticked me is therefore a blithering idiot. ——-I hope you don’t perceive that as too hateful, but if you do, I do not give a s..t.
It was great back years ago when you could tell jokes like this (which should be told with a strong Dublin accent)——— Paddy goes into a chemist shop and says —“Have you anything at all now for a severe loss of the voice”?, and the assistant replies “Good Morning now sir, can I help you at all”? —–But we cannot tell jokes like this anymore so I won’t tell it.