Mike's Minute: Britain's COVID enquiry highlights Labour's mistakes

The overarching view of the British Covid inquiry is that lockdown did not need to happen.

Their inquiry is different to our two For a start, the key players turned up. Boris Johnson and co got grilled.

Ardern and Hipkins and co never did because they refused.

It still seems to me an astonishing act of arrogance that the same people who made such profound decisions on our lives refused to participate in a public way at the official look into the way they acted.

It's a version of moral bankruptcy.

Also, it's different in Britain in that it was adversarial. It's a mistake, I think, that we didn’t take their approach.

Also, it appears our inquiry, part two at least, has issues with a number of resignations. So who knows how our's pans out. It's due first thing next year.

But although the British report says much, it's inescapable that a major observation is if the British Government had got its act together faster, if it had been more coordinated - lock downs were not necessary.

Just think about that for a moment and apply it here. Lockdowns here started pretty much the same day they did in britain; March of 2020.

If the British hadn't got their act together and were locking down in March, then surely it can be argued the same applies to us.

Obviously their lockdowns were nowhere near as hard as ours, and that’s another mass failing on the control freaks like Ardern and Hipkins. But just think about how Covid would have been, and our view of that period, if a lockdown had not been a part of the experience.

Masks, rules, contact tracing, vaccines and respiratory hygiene could have stopped the need for lockdowns. That's the British conclusion.

That’s a pretty profound finding.

It's profound for mental health and the economy. Think of the ensuing years-long damage that came out of the lockdowns, especially the Auckland ones that lasted months on end.

Jobs lost, lives lost, recession after recession for something that, quite possibly, we didn’t need to do.

I can't see how, if they can conclude it in Britain, you can't conclude it here?

Same virus, same approach, same outcome and same mistakes.

It is a failing of historic proportions.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The overarching view of the British COVID inquiry, this is profound.
Actually it should have got more coverage here. The overarching
view of the British COVID inquiry is that lockdowns did
not need to happen, So their inquiry is different to
our two. For a start, the key players turned up
Boris and Co. Got grilled Adernal Hepkins and Co. Never
did because they refused. It still seems to me in

(00:21):
an astonishing act of arrogance that the same people who
made such profound decisions on our lives refused to participate
in a public way at the official look into the
way they acted. It's a version of moral bankruptcy if
you ask me. Also different in Britain is that it
was adversarial, a mistake. I think that we didn't take
the same approach that they did. Also, it appears our

(00:42):
inquiry Part two is at least got some issues at
the moment, with a number of resignations, so who knows
how ours pans out. It is due to be released
our first thing in the new year. But although the
British report says much, it's inescapable that a major observation
is if the British government had got its act together fast.
If it had been more coordinated, lockdowns were not necessary.

(01:05):
Now just think about that for a moment and apply it.
Here are lockdowns here started, by the way, pretty much
on the exact same day they did in Britain, March
of twenty twenty. If the British hadn't got their aact
together and we were locking down in March, then surely
it could be argued the same applies to us. Right, Obviously,
their lockdowns will nowhere near as hard as ours, and
that's another mass failing on the control freaks like Aderna Hopkins.

(01:25):
But just think about how COVID would have been, our
view of that period would have been if a lockdown
had not been part of that experience. Masks rules, contact tracing,
vaccine's respiratory hygiene could have stopped the need for lockdown.
That's the British conclusion. It's pretty profound, don't you think
profound for mental health and the economy. Think of the

(01:47):
ensuing years, years long damage that came out of lockdowns,
especially the Auckland once months on end of lockdowns, jobs lost,
lives lost, recession after recession for something that quite possibly
we didn't even need to do. I can't see if
they can conclude it in Britain, how we can't conclude
something similar here, same virus, same approach, same outcome, same mistakes.

(02:10):
It is a failing. Do you not think of historic proportions?
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