I have been criticised by a family doctor on the grounds that a question I put to the PM in Parliament was ‘demoralising for NHS staff’.
I am at a loss as to how this could be the case.
The question to the PM was this:
“Pubs cannot compete with supermarkets for off-sales. Even within a household, people cannot play tennis or golf. Notwithstanding the assault on liberty and livelihoods, why are the regulations pervaded by a pettifogging malice?”
I used the word pettifogging to describe the interference in the minutiae of our lives, and malice because of the unfairness of allowing supermarkets -which have so done well out of lockdown- to sell alcohol for consumption off the premises but to prevent pubs from doing so.
In all this I merely represent the views of my constituents: I have been lobbied hard by pub landlords, golfers and tennis players. There is something rather vindictive about preventing one from playing golf alone, or with a member of your own household. It is hard to see how the restriction reduces the spread of the disease.
I’m sure that very few NHS workers were ever aware of the exchange, and I doubt that many more have had it brought to their attention by the intervention of this local doctor.
In any event, I’m confident that they will ignore it and carry on with the magnificent job that they have been doing on behalf of us all.
Sir Desmond Swayne TD MP
