Brendan O'Neill - Covid, Class & The Decay Of Cultural Confidence In The West

This time on "So What You're Saying Is....", Peter Whittle is joined once again by Brendan O'Neill, editor of Spiked Online and a columnist for various national and international publications. A lockdown sceptic, Brendan believes the tier system is horrendously damaging. He also finds the phrase "the new normal" unbelievably scary, believing it should worry us all. When people assume almost total control of our lives to the extent that they tell us when we can leave our house, who we can hug at Christmas, when we can travel and go to work, when we can go to pubs and restaurants and what we must eat whilst we are there, they are not just going to relinquish that. There are a lot of people who like telling people what to do, and they've had a real taste for authoritarianism over the past year and it will be a really big wrestle to take back our freedom from those that took them away. Covid & Class: The attacks on pubs in particular reeks of classism, Brendan O'Neill argues. But also during lockdown those who were comfortable probably had a pleasant experience, living in their larger homes, with their secure jobs and the ability to order food from companies such as Deliveroo. Meanwhile, for the rest of society life was unbearable. Lockdown revealed an important class divide -- one which was not refelected by the (middle class) media. Brendan also believes that Boris has bottled it on the culture wars. His silence during all of the momentous events of the past few months (Black Lives Matter, statue controversies, legacy of Churchill and the singing of Rule Britannia at The Last Night of the Proms, national institutions auditing their collections based on connections to slavery etc.) should be a major source of concern for everyone. Nevertheless, he thinks the Tories still have time to retain their advantage over Labour because Keir Starmer and Labour are far too woke and out of touch with the Red Wall. --------------- SUBSCRIBE: If you are enjoying the show, please subscribe to our channel on YouTube (click th