READ BY 2 MILLION CUSTOMERS your free magazine | winter 2020/21 WETHERSPOONNEWS Good decisions depend on a wide range of views and backgrounds… but lack of diversity among political leaders leads to dangerous groupthink… Boris Johnson (Prime Minister) Oxford University 1987 Nick Thomas-Symonds Chris Whitty Dominic Raab (Shadow Home Secretary) (Chief Medical Officer) (Foreign Secretary) Dominic Cummings Oxford University Oxford University Oxford University Oxford University 2001 1991 1993 1994 Rachel Reeves (Shadow Chancellor of the Anneliese Dodds Duchy of Lancaster) (Shadow Chancellor) Oxford University Oxford University 1998 Neil Ferguson (epidemiologist) Oxford University 1990 Keir Starmer (Leader of the Opposition) Oxford University 1986 Matt Hancock Ed Davey (Health Secretary) (Leader, Lib Dems) Oxford University Oxford University 1996 1988 Michael Gove Rishi Sunak (Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster) (Chancellor) Oxford University Oxford University 1988 2001 Are lockdowns the medical equivalent of the Maginot Line? Many doctors and scientists believe that lockdowns are counterproductive. Wetherspoon News presents the arguments on pages 4–23. Tim’s Viewpoint Weak leaders follow the crowd – only the brave will stand alone Politicians have become disciples of failed forecasters – and continue to promote lockdowns Johan Giesecke, the ‘Great Recession’ of 2008– country’s highest-paid economy and to mental Swedish epidemiologist, 10 is a fairly recent example. journalist as a young man, and physical health. said in April (interview No sector of the economy then a renowned historian – In addition, as former on page 14) that it was comprises more top-class and, against the odds, rallied Supreme Court judge “fascinating” how deeply university graduates than the country in its darkest hour Jonathan Sumption flawed Imperial College the banks, brokers and fund to battle for survival. emphasises (opposite), the research “changed the managers of the City of By a similar token, Steve Jobs, emergency legislation through policy of the world”, London and Wall Street. Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Mark which lockdowns have been causing “100 countries” Herd Zuckerberg and many other instigated in the UK is a to lock down in the face of Yet ‘groupthink’ in the titans of the technology world serious threat to democracy the COVID-19 pandemic. finance world is legendary – chucked in university long and ancient civil liberties. Until that point, it seems, not for nothing are financial before finishing their degree. In fact, in spite of these lockdowns had been almost institutions known as the For a pub business, like many criticisms, following the first universally regarded, by ‘thundering herd’. businesses, there has been lockdown, a sensible enough health authorities worldwide, The comfort blanket of perpetual danger from set of rules for pubs and as counterproductive. groupthink, in all walks of life, groupthink in the last 40 years, restaurants was nevertheless In fact, calculations using probably offers greater disguised as the latest agreed on among government, Imperial’s ‘modelling’ personal safety. economic or political fashion. civil servants, the police, local indicated that, without a Being wrong together, as In the early 1990s, for example, authorities and pub lockdown, there would be part of the herd, is easier the UK joined the fashionable companies, before pubs 82,000 fatalities in Sweden. than being right alone. currency experiment – the reopened on 4 July 2020. Yet, alone in Europe, the Swedes It has required immense exchange rate mechanism (ERM). Since then, disdaining rejected the Imperial model and bravery and conviction for It was supported almost consultation and acting under refused to lock down – and people like Dr Rosamond unanimously by politicians, emergency powers, a small fatalities from COVID-19 were Jones, Professor Carl economists and the media. band of ministers and less than eight per cent of the government advisers has run Heneghan and Professor This disastrous economic number predicted. amok, relentlessly moving the Sunetra Gupta to counter, experiment, the forerunner of goalposts, capriciously Wetherspoon has presented publicly, the powerful SAGE the euro, pushed interest rates changing the rules with the complex accounts and and government orthodoxy. up to 15 per cent, precipitating introduction of curfews, explanations of our business to Isolation and vilification widespread mayhem, recession masks to visit toilets and shareholders, the City and the by the herd are and bankruptcy. media, twice per annum for many other initiatives with unattractive prospects In the early noughties, there the last 28 years. no scientific basis. for contrarian thinkers. was a subsequent mighty Information Had we made the same awful Buffett calls the compulsion struggle against the groupthink Most people today struggle mistakes as Imperial, this surely to copy others the of the UK and European to find objective information would have resulted in the “institutional imperative”: establishment to avoid joining about the conflicting views on dismissal of directors and the a deep human craving to the euro – a currency which COVID-19 – especially since a loss of all credibility. conform, especially when has subsequently caused so section of the media, SAGE Hysteria faced with difficult decisions. much hardship across and leading politicians A contrasting view to the southern Europe. You might think that a of all parties have been almost hysteria of Imperial College, university education would unanimously pro lockdown – SAGE and the government help to avoid groupthink, yet, and have deliberately stoked is exhibited in an open letter sadly, the evidence in the public fear, as Jonathan (8 November) to the Forecasts tell finance world and elsewhere Sumption also highlights Prime Minister from is the opposite – albeit with you a lot about (next page). Dr Rosamond Jones and honourable exceptions, In this edition of several hundred health universities often encourage, the forecaster, Wetherspoon News (pages professionals and scientists. perhaps not deliberately, but nothing 4–23), we’ve tried to provide They say that the “management tramline thought processes. about the future some alternative views to of the crisis has become University the prevailing orthodoxy disproportionate and is now This is an important point, promoted by SAGE and causing more harm than good”. since the most senior UK the government. The letter blames “politicians politicians and their advisers Anyone running a pub It’s vital for the public to and the media” for “fuelling come from a very narrow business has to declare a consider all sides of the the idea that we are dealing clique, as the front cover personal interest in respect argument, so as to keep the with a global killer virus” and of this magazine illustrates. of the latest product of international political government and vested for presenting a “rising death They are far more prone groupthink – lockdowns. interests in check. toll”, without comparing it to tramline thinking than It was the opposition of the with “flu deaths in other years” they realise. Clearly, if maintained for long or “deaths from other causes”. enough, they will eventually public, not that of politicians, Einstein was nothing if not The letter is reprinted on prove fatal to our business. universities, the media or original, but he never went experts, which kept the UK pages 12/13 of this magazine. So, there is an inevitable to university. out of the euro, after all. Anyone familiar with the stock risk of lack of objectivity in Likewise, Shakespeare had market will be painfully aware our hostility. There have already been ‘no Latin and but little Greek’ two lockdowns – owing to of the limitations of experts’ Solve and was deprecated as an colossal costs, money is in forecasts, such as those of However, it is now surely Imperial College or SAGE. ‘upstart crow’ by the pompous short supply, for both ‘university wits’ of his era, crystal clear, as Professor As the world’s most successful companies and the country. whose own literary efforts have Mark Woolhouse of the investor, Warren Buffett, Let’s make sure that future not passed the test of time. University of Edinburgh says, known as the Sage of Omaha, that lockdowns “defer a government policies are based Churchill, often regarded has said: “Forecasts tell you a problem, they don’t solve it”. on common sense and careful lot about the forecaster, but as the greatest Briton, is arguments – not groupthink. another example. It’s also now clear, as nothing about the future.” indicated above, that Struggling with exams, he The universal failure of lockdowns cause immense nevertheless became the Tim Martin Chairman economists to predict the collateral damage – to the 2 Wetherspoon | Winter 2020/21 | jdwetherspoon.com jdwetherspoon.com | Winter 2020/21 | Wetherspoon PB Tim says: “Lord Sumption has been a dogged defender of democratic and human rights, following lockdown. Some supporters of Brexit are cross with the Supreme Court for perceived bias in the aftermath of the referendum. They’re not right about that, in my opinion. Whatever Sumption’s views about the EU, the points which he makes below are bang on.” LORD SUMPTION: MINISTERS STOKED FEAR TO JUSTIFY LOCKDOWNS Retired supreme court judge will say Government imposed draconian measures on public by instilling fear about the dangers of the Covid-19 A former supreme court judge will accuse the Government In Britain’s traditional liberal