Boris Johnson won't rule out future COVID lockdowns, saying it would be irresponsible to dismiss measures that save lives. The speaker argues lockdowns caused severe damage: delayed cancer treatments, mental health crises, and 5-6 million small businesses left without adequate support. He calls for tax relief and questions whether the government's cost-benefit analysis truly accounts for the harm.
Boris Johnson has refused to rule out further lockdowns, and, um, I'd love your thoughts on this because honestly this surprises me greatly. So just recently, uh, breaking fairly in the last few hours, Boris Johnson refused to rule out any further lockdowns if COVID variants emerge. Now, whilst he somewhat downplayed the chances, he said, and I quote, "It would be irresponsible of any leader in any democracy to rule out something that saves lives." And whilst I can agree with that to a point, of course that's a very political statement, very generalized. But I would suggest that we would have to have the most severe outbreak ever for us to go back into a lockdown. Now let me know what you think. Sean just said, I've done with all this COVID BS. I agree, I didn't ever really want to do a video on it ever again. However, um, there are fears of further winter lockdowns. Summer's going to be probably quite nice and okay, and maybe we're all going to forget about it. And, you know, further news in the world like the Russia-Ukraine crisis can almost just paper over the cracks of how the previous lockdowns were dealt with. However, a few things I think it's really important to say. I think you must be ready and unprepared that the UK could lock us down in the winter. We were told we needed one jab, then two, then three, and now it's four. It could be five and six and eight and twelve. We weren't warned of any variants, and now there's variants on variants. And so whilst it's very difficult, I'm sure, to be in government and manage dealing with outbreaks and, um, look, I couldn't— could you have done any better in government handling, um, COVID? I don't know. But what about all the increased unemployment? What about all the people that died of cancer? What about all the people that couldn't get into hospital? What about the, the virtual breaking of the NHS? What about all the suicide? What What about all the depression? What about all the struggling UK businesses? All of these things surely now can be put into context and compared to lockdown 1 and lockdown 2 and variation 3 and booster 4. Surely now. But, um, the PM will not rule out going into future lockdowns if they believe it's deadly enough. I would love to know what you think. Are we in a situation where winter lockdowns, um, might be somewhat of a norm? What about support for small businesses? What about reducing VAT? What about reducing corp tax? What about reducing income tax? What about subsidies and support and tax breaks and reliefs for start and scale-up businesses. There are 5 to 6 million small businesses in the UK that fund and fuel and drive the entire economy, and virtually nothing has been done to support them. Virtually nothing. A furlough scheme was somewhat useful but didn't even touch the sides. National Insurance has still gone up. Corp tax is going up from 18 to 25%. Terence has said there would be riots. Exactly. Tim said Johnson is an insane criminal. So I would love your thoughts on this very generic political statement of, it would be irresponsible of any leader in any democracy to rule out something that saves lives, but what about the cost of lockdowns? 1, 2, did we have a third one? We had a soft one. Yeah, Lorraine has said lockdowns cause more harm than good. There was all this modelling of, you know, coronavirus. What about all the modelling of the implications of lockdowns? I don't think the UK have done enough to support all those people who have been laid off, like for example with P&O. They just sort of made P&O the villain instead of looking after and helping all the people that got laid off. So I don't think they've done enough to fuel up the job market. I don't think they've done anywhere near enough to give you incentive to start a business and to give existing businesses incentives and breaks and reasons to be able to trade once again. They killed the Christmas trade of 2021 with the soft lockdown and said, oh, well, we're not locking down, but basically made it virtually impossible to trade. And all the business that was lost and all the cancellations in retail and travel and leisure. And it's almost like it's all kind of got forgotten now because obviously we are in the situation with Ukraine and Russia is possibly more important. But how can the government keep getting away, keep getting away with it? These lockdown parties, nothing's going to happen. Let's just be honest. What do you think about that? I think nothing will happen. A few lame fines, probably no more than a parking fine. Nothing's gonna happen. But every month they were having lockdown parties and lockdown meetups, not just when we were locked down, which was bad enough, but when businesses couldn't trade. And how many businesses are we gonna see go under in the next 3, 5, and 10 years? How many people are we gonna see unemployed in the next 3, 5, and 10 years? There's no modeling of this. There seems to be no interest in supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs and the workforce in the UK. If there was, then VAT would have been reduced. VAT was reduced in the recession of 2008. Banks were bailed out in 2008. Why is it that banks that caused the last recession were bailed out, but companies and entrepreneurs are not being supported through COVID and lockdowns. How can that be? That is ridiculous. Anyway, let me know what you think in the comments. Boris Johnson has refused to rule out further lockdowns. Um, he— whilst he downplayed the chances of them, he said that it would be irresponsible of any leader in any democracy to rule out something that saves lives. But what about all the lives that it costs? What— how many people died of cancer? How many people died because they couldn't get into hospital? Hospital versus how many people were saved? Well, I don't know, but I would love to see some modeling on that. But of course, that's not going to happen, is it? Because if it turns out that the government made some poor decisions, they're not going to want that in the media. So it'll just be brushed under the carpet like everybody else. Isaac has said we don't matter. So let me know your thoughts. Is another lockdown possible? Are we going to have to get used to it? Should we have to prepare and plan for it? Are, are the government getting away with it? Are they doing enough to support employees, business owners, employers? Let me know what you think. Please hit the share button. It's important we get this message out. Why? Because it's all just getting brushed under the carpet. The implications of Brexit brushed under the carpet. The implication of lockdowns brushed under carpet, and implications that government being hypocrites over their own laws and rules— locking us down but having parties? Brushed underneath this rug! And what I believe will happen is people start to see cost those Lockdown's; they'll begin seeing costs for small businesses. The costing depression... Costing suicide... Costs from unemployment... Tax rates going up up and taxes growing ever higher as well! And what will happen? They'll brush it under the carpet with some new revelation in the media to forget everything that happened before. They're washing their hands of responsibility. Let me know what you think. Hit the share button. Thanks for tuning in, and remember, if you don't risk anything, you risk everything.
