The second and third Covid lockdowns were the biggest ever mistake made by a British Government in peacetime, Nigel Farage has said. The Telegraph has the story.
The Reform U.K. leader was speaking to 1,000 people at the Rainton Arena which is in the constituency of Houghton and Sunderland South, currently represented by Labour’s Bridget Phillipson.
Mr. Farage told the rally: “The Tories say we’re in economic trouble because of the pandemic. But hang on, you didn’t need to lock us down for a second and a third time.
“You didn’t need to take away our freedoms in a way that weren’t even done during World War Two and all of it with Labour support.
“I actually believe the long-term economic and psychological damage from lockdowns two and three perhaps represents the biggest mistake any British government, supported by the opposition, has ever made in peacetime.”
He went on to say he treated the second and third lockdowns with “contempt”.
It’s about time someone in this election drew attention to the proverbial pachyderm behind many of the country’s current woes, from NHS waiting lists to the mountainous debt, record tax levels and sky-high welfare bill stemming in part from a degraded work ethic.
What about the first lockdown though – the most extreme of the three, without which the later ones could not have happened? That one, of course, Farage supported at the time, saying he was “delighted when the Government performed its dramatic U-turn a few weeks ago and moved away from a herd immunity strategy” – and it’s notable that he still doesn’t appear willing to admit he was wrong to do so. Presumably this would be because ‘we didn’t know’ so did it ‘just in case’, given the scary modelling etc. As longstanding readers of this site know, this is false: we did know at the time. The truth about Covid was obvious as soon as the Diamond Princess outbreak dissipated with few deaths even among the old by the end of February 2020, if not sooner.
But even if we didn’t know at the time, we certainly do now. So, why not say that with hindsight (at least) the first lockdown was also a huge mistake? And does the fact that Farage didn’t do this mean he is still unwilling to accept that lockdowns are wrong in principle – that they’re no way to deal with a potential public health crisis, first because they don’t work, and second because even if they did, the harm to human freedoms and welfare could never be worth it.
Perhaps he is hedging because he’s a deft politician who knows that condemnation of the later lockdowns is likely to sell better with the public, many of whom will still feel that in the panic of March 2020 everyone was doing the best they could. Maybe privately he would agree that the first was just as bad or worse. But in terms of reassurance that a Prime Minister Farage wouldn’t be willing to lock down the country next time Neil Ferguson rocks up with his latest mathematical model predicting a gazillion dead by Friday, it would be good to hear him renounce 2020’s fateful lockdownism entirely.
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That is why Farage ultimately won’t go very far. He won’t take the risk and really go for it.
He fails to condemn lockdowns completely, accepting that the first one may have been warranted.
He pushes back on the Russia demonisation, but will throw a bone and leave the “Putin is a very bad man” bit in.
He’ll tell us net zero is destructive but won’t go out on a limb and say that man made climate change is, as far as we know, total bollocks.
Personally I’m left dissatisfied. Yes he’s on the right track but he’s finessing it which ultimately makes him just another politician, not quite speaking his mind.
Because I’m sure in private he thinks global warming is bullshit and Putin is just another national leader doing what national leaders do, like all the rest of them. And I bet he thinks the first lockdown was also wrong.
I don’t know that, but that is the impression he leaves me. He’s bottling it.
He talks a better fight than the others and Farage as PM of a Reform govt would be less bad than Starmer will be. But I agree with your comments. All of that said, can you name a political leader anywhere in the world who has achieved power recently who more fully represents your views, and furthermore has delivered? The only one I can think of is Milei but it’s early days with him.
I assume like others that he is being tactical. And that is my objection. Not that he doesn’t fully represent me. I don’t expect that. I fear he doesn’t represent me at all.
I think what is needed is massive shake up and you can’t do that tip toeing around basic fundamental truths and indulging lies for tactical reasons.
That said, I’m not that fussed really. I have zero faith in this system of elections producing anything of value. It’s all totally rigged.
For all Farage’s success so far, Reform will do ok votes wise but will get a ridiculously low number of seats for the votes they get and life will carry on as usual. This will be a talking point after the election, but nothing will change.
That’s my prediction and I’m sticking with it.
I think you, and indeed most of the DS readers, are well informed and therefore ‘robust’ enough to hear the truth. However many others aren’t, and to call Climate Change a complete scam (it really is), or completely dismiss the early concerns (although baseless) about Covid would be too abrasive for voters. It would be asking them to confront their cognitive dissonance. This would probably lose far more voters than gain new supporters – imho.
So yes, I would like him to go further, but I am happy to wait for when the time is right.
When will the time be right?
Hint – the right time was March 2020. The fact that hardly anyone spoke up got us where we are today. I’m done with “leaders” who won’t stand up for what’s right when the stakes are as high as they were in 2020.
Exactly he needs both barrels or a hand grenade to lob at the Uniparty. Like when he just laughed at Penny Mordaunt — He could land many more heavy blows like that.
That’s the exact crux of the matter: For tactical reason, we unfortunately cannot tell voters the truth because they might not like it and then, we’d get less votes => To hell with the guy, we have enough politicians of that sort already.
He may only be telling lies still palatable to you today but as he supports the ‘method’ in principle, this is bound to change.
“To hell with the guy, we have enough politicians of that sort already.”
100%. Well put.
To me Putin is a villain and his adversaries seem good at falling off tall buildings, a bit like those homosexuals in Gaza. I just think Ukraine is not much better and corrupt and we should stay away from that conflict. Just like Farage’s mate Trump; unless Trump takes down the IMF, CIA, FBI & various charities, think tanks etc, he won’t get very far. I’m not sure Trump even wants to do those things, or even try.
Quite possibly. He’s only one bloke after all. However, he’s perhaps made it possible to question policies which were unquestionable previously.
Toby Young questioned them, so did Peter Hitchens, and many others (though sadly too few to stop it).
Most of us here questioned them, and I suspect most of us declined the “Covid vaccine”.
So not much sympathy from me I’m afraid.
The people’s contract commits the Reform Party to scrapping Net Zero policies and subsidies. Oil and gas will be produced in the UK and Nuclear Small Modular Reactors will be fast tracked into UK production.
Farage. Just say it. All lockdowns were an enormous mistake. All of them.
The whole thing.
There wasn’t even a goddamn pandemic.
You beat me to it.
The only pandemic was one of fear, deliberately orchestrated by the RPTB.in order to suit their nefarious ends.
Fractional banking ie more or less Western capitalism is dying. They can only hold on to their power through chaos. Covid failed because nature bats last.
So, they need a war. I wonder, could it be those dastardly Russians to blame. Watch for a Big False Flag, because as things stand even the sheep wouldn’t yet swallow a proper war against Putin.
May they all rot in hell.
Never forgive. Never forget
No “mistake” but I get when you are coming from.
Indeed. Grammar fail on my part. Thanks
His comment is right as far as it goes, but he is being opportunistic now, as he always is. Whether anyone really wants someone like that in a government department, that should think twice about that.
Do we prefer to have the people who won’t talk about it at all..?
I notice in the Portillo explanation of why Nett Zero is un-necessary, he isn’t challenging the core belief of the NZ mob, but gently introducing them to the logic of the argument against. Remember most of the people who hold positive views about lockdown and covid and nett Zero haven’t got there by some free thinking and soul searching. They are there because that what they were encouraged to think.
Agreed. GB News is now a failure at calling out the c02 bollox. Only Neil Oliver and a couple on Headliners.
Am I the only one who finds Farage an enigma? I supported him on Brexit, but I shared David Bull’s disappointment when he trusted Boris’s promises.
Now, he claims that he will only support Reform candidates in Labour held seats, because he is convinced that disappointed Tories will definitely vote Reform. If he really believes that, then he is either not as bright as people think, or, he is being taken in again by false promises. Surely, he knows that there are plenty of Shy-Tories around who would either vote Conservative or LibDems, but never what is presented to them by the media as hard right. Farage will regain my trust if he supports the Reform war veteran contesting Sunak’s seat. If he doesn’t, I’m entitled to conclude that he is not as authentic as he wishes us to believe.
We should subject him to the same scrutiny as any other politician. I have to say from where I stand he has an honesty, openness, willingness to talk about significant problems and personal integrity that is hard to find anywhere else in great quantities…
As with Trump, the question is not ‘what flaws does this person have?’, but ‘can they get the job done.?’
David Bull….He could’ve been better during the jab rollout fascism. I can’t stand those that jump ship when they think the wind is changing. What happened to first principles.
He done a good job highlighting the small boats in 2020 when the MSM were looking the other way. But maybe he should’ve spent more time looking into the Lockdown PsyOp and how Sweden & Florida exposed the corrupt computer models.
He also accused Laurance Fox of not being a team player when he complained about the removal of their best broadcaster Mark Steyn.
First lockdown ok though. And many will still vote, but vote for the seemingly kindest of hostage takers. Yeah, that’s definitely how we break the system.
All the Lockdowns were a mistake , but I believe Farage is edging towards a position which no other politician is taking and he could , with influence blow away so much of the lies and deceit inflicted upon us by Science And Politics .
It was a mistake on the part of the general public to comply. The architects of the overall approach knew exactly what they were doing and why, and I imagine achieved most or all of their goals – £trillions for the medical industrial complex, more prominent role for “bio security”, “public health”, the WHO, normalising of micro control of global population, blanket use of pysops on the public, understanding the limits of public compliance and what they could get away with, normalising of “lockdowns” and paying people to do sit at home and do nothing, reinforcement of collective good as justification for fascism/communism/tyranny. No mistake there – job done.
His comment can be taken as endorsement that it’s OK to ask awkward questions. Go on Facebook/Twitter/BBC other shite media – keep trying to suppress the question now. If it’s OK to question lockdown as a policy, what about questioning Net Zero?
“…because ‘we didn’t know’ so did it ‘just in case’,”
“…in the panic of March 2020 everyone was doing the best they could.”
If we didn’t know what we were dealing with (we did -Diamond Princess) then we equally did not know what the solutions were or what was best. Instead ‘solutions’ were applied with great certainty as if these were well known and based on decades of experience. As it happens the ‘certainty’ of these solutions came from the CCP. Having locked down Wuhan using all the typically totalitarian (and medieval) methods that a disaster movie director could come up with, it then declared it had controlled the virus. The WHO, and Bill, broadcast to the world what a good job the CCP had done and we must all do this until a vaccine comes along. What is particularly interesting is that virtually all the nations of the planet locked themselves down while China only locked down 1 province while the rest of China remained open. Neither the WHO, the UN, the MSM or any Labour or SNP MPs demanded that China lock down completely, but they did heavily criticise Sweden and Florida for not locking down.
I like the Russell Brand piss take on the last debate between Starmer & Sunak…..Some guy asked is this the best we are offered for PM a choice between the two. GB News were playing the clip too. Really give it to them. You see, we’re still in a democracy now off you go and vote for any one of them two!
They weren’t a mistake.
It was deliberate destruction. You can’t implement a Great Reset without first destroying what is already there.
Farage might not have come out explicitly against all lockdowns.
However, Richard Tice certainly has, as early as 2020:
https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/nick-ferrari/brexit-party-chair-on-rebranding-to-be-anti-lockdown-voice/
Just like Richard Madeley, rightly stood up against the Lockdowns, but then took part in the experimental jab fascism.
It’s in the people’s contract:
Never again will our entire country be locked down on shoddy evidence and lies”.
That is the Reform Party promise to the British people.