Lord Sumption:

Yes, I do. The way in which we govern ourselves is a great deal more important than the way in which we react to any particular crisis because that will live with us forever whereas the way in which we respond to a particular crisis may be mistaken or misguided, but the consequences will not live with us forever. I do not accept the Deputy's starting premise that the lockdown saved a significant number of lives. Over the long term it will be found to have saved very few lives, because unless the lockdown is maintained indefinitely, the infection rate simply rebounds afterwards. I also believe that in areas such as dementia, mental health and delayed diagnosis and treatment of cancer, the deaths occasioned by the lockdown may in the end not fall far short of the deaths occasioned by the disease. My answer to the Deputy's question is in part that I think history will look back on this as a monument of collective hysteria and governmental folly. That is a view many people would reject and I take it the Deputy would reject it, but it is a view that I and others hold.