Pubs boss: Treatment of young in lockdown
THE head of a popular pub chain hit out at the Government yesterday for forcing young people to stay in, in what he claimed had been a failed bid to protect the elderly.
In a bizarre rant, Hugh Osmond, founder of Punch Taverns, told Radio 4 that ministers had made the lives of the young a misery by stopping them going out.
Mr Osmond, 58, said: “The virus is not the fault of the Government but the terrible reaction to it obviously is. I think this is probably the worst set of blunders since the First World War – I mean absolutely disgraceful treatment of young people.
“You know we’ve had 300 people who were previously healthy under 60, die of this disease. That’s just 300 out of 55 odd million people in England. It’s far fewer than die in car accidents, fewer than die at home, fewer than die of suicides, cancer or a myriad of other things. And these are the people actually who primarily work in retail and hospitality.
“It’s absolute criminal that these healthy under-60s have been locked up, prevented from working, prevented from going to school, prevented from going out, prevented from seeing friends.
“I mean it’s just a travesty that the Government has responded like that and at the same time, failed to protect actually the old people where the disease is really nasty you know, who died in their droves in care homes.”
He added: “The worst mistake was not getting infection control right.”
And with respect to going back to the pub he stressed: “The risks are absolutely minimal. The majority of people who will be