Pub company Wetherspoon’s chairman Tim Martin has written to the Prime Minister, and sent to all MPs (see letter below), alleging poor decision making by the government in its Covid-19 policies.
The letter encloses an online edition of Wetherspoon News with articles by a range of commentators, querying government policies.
Martin said, “It is a fallacy that pubs will reopen on Wednesday 2 December. The government has effectively closed all pubs in England , by stealth- possibly for the first time in history.
“A pub licence, unlike a restaurant licence, allows you to sell beer, wine and spirits 'for consumption on the premises', without a table meal - and this is now prohibited.
“The reality is that pubs in tier 3 will be physically shut from 2 December and pubs in tier 2, if they open at all, will be trading as restaurants , not pubs. There are only a tiny number of pubs in tier 1 - and in those you can’t even order at the bar.'
Martin continued, “I decided to write to all MPs, because the government is making reckless decisions, using emergency powers, and MPs only have an occasional opportunity to intervene- there will be a vote in Parliament on Tuesday.
“There is overwhelming scientific evidence that lockdowns and quasi-lockdowns can be counterproductive, as the World Health Organisation has recently emphasised.'
He went on, “The government has spent around £350 billion on lockdowns so far - around three times what is spent annually on the health service. That expenditure will continue at about £6 billion a week for the indefinite future.
“I am hopeful that MPs will see that the government is embarking on economically ruinous policies, with no health benefits.'
Martin concluded, “Pubs have invested tens of millions of pound to make them safe, in accordance with regulations devised by the government, local authorities and health officials. The test and trace results show that there has been very little transfer of the virus in pubs and restaurants.”
Mr Boris Johnson
House of Commons,
London SW1A 0AA
Dear Boris,
RE: POOR GOVERNMENT DECISIONS
Most people are concerned about poor decision-making at the heart of government, in particular, its support for lockdowns or “quasi-lockdowns”.
A majority of health professionals, including the World Health Organisation, regards lockdowns as of very limited value - or, more often, as counterproductive.
Wetherspoon has produced a 23 page online edition of Wetherspoon News (clickhere to view), its pub magazine, with articles from leading academics, doctors and other commentators, highlighting serious flaws in the government’s reaction to coronavirus.
Jonathan Sumption, a former Supreme Court judge, says that the government has used fear tactics and emergency powers, in an unconstitutional way, undermining civil liberties and democracy.
Kamran Abbasi, executive director of the British Medical Journal says that “Covid-19 has unleashed state corruption on a grand scale”, and that “science is being suppressed for political and financial gain”.
Oliver Shah, business editor of the Sunday Times, says, “most SAGE members have never had to meet a payroll or rent quarter date and refers to “Johnson and his punch-drunk government stumbling after the Pied Piper onto a barren mountainside where commerce and employment count for nothing.
Dr Mike Yeadon, Professor Johan Giesecke and others excoriate faulty research from Imperial College and SAGE, upon which the government frequently relies.
Freelance journalist Ross Clark, writing in the Daily Mail, undermines much of the evidence the government uses to justify its actions - effectively unchallenged, as Wetherspoon News highlights, by the government itself.
The most disturbing aspect of government behaviour is its lack of candour.
It is now purporting to end lockdown in December. However, for pubs on tier 2 and tier 3, lockdown, in effect, continues and unprofitable trading is certain to continue for the indefinite future - combined with the impossibility of making plans in the face of capricious and unpredictable regulations.
Wetherspoon News advances the view that “groupthink” among the government and its advisors (supported by many MPs of all parties) is the likely cause of poor decisions with regard to coronavirus. You may disagree, but I hope you can spare a few minutes to read the magazine.
Yours sincerely,
Tim Martin
Chairman
JD WETHERSPOON PLC