Brendan O’Neill Demands More Covid-19 Deaths

In the current health crisis, the last thing we need from our free and fearless press and their variously irresponsible hangers-on is to encourage the public not to behave as the Government knows they must: social distancing is key to suppressing the spread of the Coronavirus. That means less human interaction, which is why the closure of pubs, restaurants, gyms, cinemas and theatres has been ordered.

Even for the libertarian brigade, this should be a no-brainer. Not, though, for Brendan O’Neill of Spiked, so-called because it should have been long ago. Bren is opposed to closing pubs, and just to show that the lack of societal responsibility extends throughout the alt-right, he has been given a platform by the Spectator magazine to say so.

Here, he soon gets into his stride. “I know that media people and luvvies for whom pubs are just places you go to for a hip gastro lunch consisting of overpriced dirty burgers will think this is over-the-top. Well, then they don’t know the centrality of the pub to life in this country”. Luvvies! Elites! Media people! Er, like Himself. But do go on.

“Over the past week, as rumours grew of a government crackdown on public houses, I popped into the pubs near my flat a few times. I wanted to know who was still frequenting these places that have apparently become hotbeds of disease and destruction. It was mostly old blokes, especially during the day. Men in their seventies, usually on their own, sat at a table with a pint and the newspaper”. Which means what, Bren?

He doesn’t tell us. “Yes, we all know that Covid-19 is a serious disease and we all agree that huge amounts of government resources should be devoted to tackling it and treating those infected by it. But to halt everyday life, even pub life, in response to it? We didn't do that during the far worse 1918 flu epidemic. Or during the Second World War. Or when the IRA was bombing actual pubs. We carried on. The pub continued”.

And what happened in 1918 (and indeed 1919) as a result of “carrying on”? The H1N1 epidemic claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. Even after two waves of destruction in 1918, the virus returned for a third time the following year. Because nothing was done to restrict interaction, although measures were taken to promote awareness of how the disease was spread. That was the price of Brendan O’Neill’s dream of liberty.

He just doesn’t get it: he rightly identifies “old blokes … Men in their seventies”, but manages to miss that Covid-19 will rampage through that part of the population, leaving many to die an agonising and painful death, if left unchecked - like H1N1 in 1918.

Instead, O’Neill naively witters on “It’s the atmosphere of liberty. The atmosphere of social connection. The atmosphere of life itself … This is a dark day for the UK. Fight Covid-19, yes, but don’t kill freedom in the process”. Right you are, Bren. We’ll just leave them open and prematurely slaughter lots of old blokes instead. In the name of ideological purity.

Brendan O’Neill started his response to the Covid-19 crisis by trying to blame “leftists”. Now he’s advocating for euthanasia. But it pays well, so that’s all right, then.

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