Boris Johnson is treating the UK ‘like a laboratory’, claims scientist

Screen grab of Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a media briefing in Downing Street. Photograph: PA Video/PA Wire. - Credit: PA

Boris Johnson is treating the UK ‘like a laboratory’ by ignoring what has worked in other parts of the world in his response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Professor Ellis Cashmore from Aston University was left distinctly unimpressed by new announcements on the easing of the lockdown.

He told LBC’s Nick Ferrari: ‘We have a prime minister now who is taking advice or instructions from a group of scientists who seem to imagine society as like a laboratory.

‘They are designing something that they want to see happen. Not necessarily observing the world around them and responding to it, but designing it as a lab experiment.’

He cites the example of support bubbles as something he believed was an ‘experiment’ along with how they are trying to return children to school so quickly.


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He said he thinks people are now breaking the guidelines frequently – and that Johnson’s vision for the easing of lockdown is no longer realistic.

‘The reality is this: We’ve just come out of a weekend where we saw images of thousands of people protesting all over the country who are clearly violating the protocols in their particular countries. There’s no observation of bubbles or anything like it.’