Lockdown sceptic Conservative MP Sir Desmond Swayne has criticised the “mad scientists” advising the government, accusing them of having a “socialist wet dream” of introducing more coronavirus restrictions before Christmas.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to announce next week whether Christmas can go ahead as normal as possible or whether he will attempt to introduce further restrictions, after already having reintroduced the mask mandate on public transport and in shops last month in response to the discovery of the Omicron variant of the Chinese coronavirus.
Ministers are said to be unsure whether, by next week, the government will lift the mask mandate, or introduce new rules, which could include introducing vaccine passports for large events. One source at Number 10 Downing Street told the i newspaper on Monday: “We are only a week into the new restrictions and we just don’t have the data that we need yet. It will take a week or two to know slightly more about the variant.”
Asked whether the UK should be considering more restrictions, lockdown sceptic Conservative MP Sir Desmond Swayne told Julia Hartley-Brewer on talkRADIO on Tuesday morning: “No! We’ve already gone far too far.”
He went on to criticise the various official and non-official scientific groups, some of which advise the government, saying: “I am absolutely at a loss as to the extraordinary state of affairs as these crazed scientists, these Dr Strangeloves of SPI-M, SAGE, Independent SAGE, believe that their socialist wet dream is about to come true and they’ll be able to control our lives again and impose all sorts of sanctions upon us.”
On Sunday, a member of the influential Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) had suggested that restrictions could be introduced in the New Year. Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter from the University of Cambridge said that while the government “would love not to disrupt Christmas”, “what happens after Christmas of course is another matter”.
Sir Desmond’s remarks come after fellow lockdown-sceptic Tory Sir Christopher Chope accused the government of waging a “propaganda war” on the British people to keep them compliant and in support of continued restrictions.
Saying of his few dozen colleagues in the Commons appearing to be fighting a losing battled against the government and opposition to keep restrictions on the table, Sir Christopher said: “The only way we will win is by getting a change in public opinion, and that’s where this propaganda war is being waged. The government is waging a propaganda war and it’s obsessed by going out and doing opinion polls. Well, if your propaganda’s successful, and you ask those people, they’ll say, yes, I’m very happy to have my freedoms restricted.”
The government has been keeping in reserve under its Plan B for dealing with the pandemic over Winter domestic vaccine passports, meaning that only those who are fully vaccinated can enter large and certain other venues, should the measures be brought in.
Initially associated with nightclub entry — and ostensibly only affecting the young — Sir Desmond Swayne had warned in August that vaccine passports were a “Trojan Horse for an identity card system” and that the pass could easily be rolled out to exclude the unvaccinated from other aspects of everyday life.