NON-ESSENTIAL NONSENSE

Neil Hamilton, MS for Mid & West Wales and Leader of UKIP Wales, has accused Welsh Government of losing touch with reality. 

Last week Mr Hamilton, a member of the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs committee, blasted the two week national lockdown which started last Friday.

The ‘fire-break’ has incensed people all over Wales with supermarkets being forced to sell only ‘non-essential’ items. A petition calling for the draconian measures to be reversed has already attracted over 65,000 signatures and continues to grow. 

Mr Hamilton said:

“I welcome this robust response to these draconian measures. This petition has the highest number of signatures ever recorded in the 20 year history of the Welsh Parliament.  

“The Welsh Government has massively overreacted. This ‘non-essential’ nonsense is breathtakingly arrogant; a few people self-righteously imposing their own moralising dogma.  Who are they to tell people what is essential to them? They seem hell bent on destroying the Welsh economy, its heritage and the life chances of many.

“All we need are some simple common sense guidance notes on which to base personal behaviour. The continuing and extended restrictions are not only endlessly confusing but also vastly in excess of anything which might be justified.

“We have to learn to live with Covid just as we live with flu which kills thousands in Wales each year, mostly the elderly or those with underlying health conditions, just like Covid. The adverse effects of lockdown outweigh any perceived advantage. Approximately 33,000 people die in Wales every year. The country has been paralysed by focusing on the relatively few confirmed Covid-19 deaths to date.

“I am receiving emails daily of absolute horror stories. People’s lives being destroyed because they cannot get on with their business.  If this continues, we will end up with far more people dead through poverty, cancelled operations etc. than ever were killed by Covid. The sense of proportion seems to have gone right out of the window.

“We are adults and deserve to be treated as such. Of course the vulnerable need to be shielded but let people make their own decisions about what is right for them and their children.  No-one wants to get this virus, let alone pass it on to a vulnerable friend or family, but we should be allowed to decide our own level of risk, based on our personal circumstances. We are not children and this is not a dictatorship.

“Welsh Government seems to have lost all touch with reality. It is no coincidence that both Mark Drakeford and Health Minister Vaughan Gething represent Cardiff seats; one does wonder if they have any idea what goes on outside their Cardiff Bay Bubble. 

“Welsh Government seem steely determined to continue on their wrecking ball path with little regard to the devastation they are inflicting on the economy and on people’s lives.   

“Currently, the most ‘non-essential’ item in Wales is the First Minister and his motley crew.”