What are the wider legal, political and social repercussions? | Panel Discussion

Visit http://www.questioneverything.io to join our newsletter to receive future talks, events and more.

Beyond the issues of efficacy and collateral damages of the lockdown, this panel examines the wider social, political, regulatory, legal and cultural factors which have contributed to the unprecedented response to COVID-19, as well as the impact of some of the factors moving forward into the future.

DR LEE JONES
Dr Lee Jones is a Reader in International Politics at Queen Mary University of London. He has written widely on the management of transnational security issues, including pandemic disease, notably in his book Governing Borderless Threats, 2015.

Lee regularly advises the British and other governments and civil society organisations and has often appeared in the national and international media. He has published research on the UK’s flawed response to COVID-19, which he attributes to the failure of the “neoliberal regulatory state”.

FRANCIS HOAR
Francis Hoar is a leading Barrister who specialises in public, constitutional and electoral law. Francis has been recognised, shortlisted and awarded by a number of major papers and publications such as The Times and The Lawyer Magazine. He is ranked by the Legal 500, in Band 1, as one of the top 10 leading juniors in Administrative and Public Law; and, by Chambers and Partners, and in Band 1 as one of only four juniors ranked in Election Law.

In April 2020 Francis’ analysis challenging the lawfulness of the ‘lockdown’ regulations led to his instruction by Simon Dolan in a crowdfunded judicial review that was decided by the Court of Appeal in December. He has acted in judicial reviews of the International Travel Regulations and in challenges to mask policies in schools and to the mandatory vaccination of employees.

TOBY YOUNG
Toby Young is the chief executive of the Free Speech Union, a non-partisan, mass membership public interest body that stands up for the speech rights of its members. He co-founded the West London Free School, the first free school to sign a funding agreement with the British government, and is the author of four books, the best known of which is How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2001).

Toby’s teaching experience includes working as a teaching fellow at Harvard and a teaching assistant at Cambridge.

Most recently, he set up a blog called The Daily Sceptic (formerly Lockdown Sceptics) that has received over ten million unique visitors. He is also an Associate Editor of the Spectator, where he’s written a weekly column since 1998.

WILL JONES (Moderator)
Will Jones is Associate Editor of The Daily Sceptic, A UK-based writer on politics, science and culture, he is currently focused on countering the constant stream of distortion and misinformation about COVID-19 and lockdowns coming out of government and media. He has a PhD in political theory and an MA in ethics and political theory from the University of Reading. He also holds a BSc in mathematics from the University of Warwick and is the author of Evangelical Social Theology: Past and Present ( 2017).

LOCKDOWNS SUMMIT
The ‘Lockdowns Summit’ was hosted by Question Everything on the 17th July 2021 at a prestigious conference centre in London was the first summit to critically assess the global response to covid-19 and explore how the world can responsibly begin to live with the virus.

Follow QETalks on Twitter: http://twitter.com/QETalks

Like QETalks on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/questioneverything.io

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/QuestionEverythingTalks?sub_confirmation=1

covid-19covid19covid