'Who is writing policy, Lewis Carroll?' Nick Ferrari challenges Minister Covid restrictions
15 December 2020, 08:49 | Updated: 15 December 2020, 08:52
Whose writing policy, Lewis Carroll? Ferrari challenges Minister over London moving to Tier 3
With London and much of the South East set to face harsher Covid restrictions from midnight, Nick Ferrari challenged the Chief Secretary to the Treasury over the move.
"How much of a disaster was Eat Out To Help Out? Because that spread it, didn't it?" Nick asked the Minister.
"No," Steve Barclay said, telling LBC he thought "eating outdoors" was a good thing.
This led to Nick Ferrari challenging him, "no, you didn't have to eat outdoors, let's be accurate here."
"I saw Rishi Sunak wandering around serving pizzas inside a restaurant, so Eat Out To Help Out was a glowing success was it?"
Answering Nick, Mr Barclay said the scheme "responded to one of the pressures the industry had at that time, which was to get confidence back."
"One minute you're paying the meal bill, and the next you shut the restaurant," Nick said to the Minister.
Which led to him asking just who was writing policy for the Government.
"Who is writing? Lewis Carroll, is that who is deciding policy up there?"
Mr Barclay said that at this point the infection rate was lower and the Government was attempting to get consumer confidence back.
"There's no confidence in the trade now Mr Barclay, people are closing their pubs for the last time today," Nick said.
With parts of the country set to enter Tier 3 pubs and restaurants will be forced to close unless they can sell takeaway food.
