Lockdown is ‘incinerator’ not ‘fire break’ claims Neil Hamilton MS

NEIL Hamilton, MS for Mid and West Wales and Leader of UKIP Wales, has accused the Welsh Government of lacking all sense of proportion when it comes to tackling the coronavirus crisis.

Speaking during plenary Mr Hamilton, a member of the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs committee, blasted the two week national lockdown which starts at 6pm this Friday.

He said:

“The idea this is going to make the slightest difference to the long-term infection and mortality rates of this disease is self-evidently absurd.

“There is nothing in what we know of the epidemiology of Covid, in the last six months that could possibly justify the Armageddon predictions of the mathematical modellers, not scientists, who are advising the Government to introduce these draconian measures.

“Sir Richard Leese, leader of the Labour Party on Greater Manchester City Council, has said, ‘most people who test positive for the virus are not getting particularly ill. They are not the problem’.

“So, the number of infections is not the right statistic to concentrate on if we are looking to reduce the impact of this disease upon the country.

“This is not a firebreak; it is an incinerator for the businesses and jobs that will be lost as a result of these draconian changes. There were 600 new cases in Wales yesterday and one death. It is on that basis we are introducing these extraordinary measures, which have never been see in peacetime on previous occasions.”

Mr Hamilton continued: “I met with Hywel Dda University Health Board last Friday, and was told in the counties of Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire and Carmarthen, there were six people in hospital with Covid; three in Llanelli, three in Bronglais at Aberystwyth, and one of those was actually transferred there from Swansea. There were also 16 people suspected of having Covid.

“This does not seem to be a health crisis of the proportions the Health Minister is saying.

“In Hywel Dda, 15,800 people have been waiting for more than 36 weeks for treatment for various serious conditions, and the health board is short of 650 registered nurses.

“I said last month the First Minister was using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Unfortunately this looks set to continue and it is getting worse.

“I feel sympathy for all the areas in Wales where the infection rate is low. It is ridiculous and draconian for them to be in a national lockdown.

“What we need is a sense of proportion which is the one thing the Welsh Labour Government lacks.”

Commenting further, Mr Hamilton said:

“This is nothing more than a case of providing a vast pair of asbestos underpants for Welsh Government to protect their backside. They are not following ‘science’ but mathematical modelling which is little more than guess work – garbage in, garbage out.”