Tory MS tells Drakeford to ‘follow England’s lead’ by ditching Covid restrictions
A Tory MS has told Mark Drakeford to follow England’s lead by ditching Covid restrictions.
Laura Anne Jones, a regional Senedd member for South Wales East, wants the Welsh Government to copy Boris Johnson’s plan of scrapping all remain restrictions at the end of the month.
In a column for the right-wing MailPlus news platform, she hit out at the Welsh First Minister, who she argued has been “hell-bent on doing things differently” during the pandemic.
The headline of the article said: “Wales needs to follow the (sic) Boris Johnson’s lead and kick Covid restrictions to the kerb”.
It was announced by the First Minister last week that Covid passes will no longer be needed from the end of this week and that face masks will begin to be phased out before St David’s Day.
Economy Minister Vaughan Gething said the Welsh Government had been “ambushed” by The UK Government’s latest Covid announcement of plans to scrap self-isolation rules in England for people who test positive for Covid later this month.
He said Welsh Government was not informed of this major rule change prior to the announcement.
Gething also said that the Welsh Government work closely with the other countries in the UK, but argued that this is made more difficult when they are not made aware of rule changes in advance.
‘Curbs’
Laura Anne Jones said: “England will be the first country in the world to fully break free from curbs that have affected our lives for nearly two years, and return to some sort of normality.
“Here in Wales, Labour have been eager to impose restrictions at every turn, ruining many livelihoods, yet extremely hesitant when it comes to giving back our freedoms.
“When Boris held his nerve at the end of last year, in Wales we were issued with more draconian measures that inflicted untold damage on the nation’s economy, mental health and general morale.
“Throughout this whole pandemic, First Minister Mark Drakeford has been hell-bent on doing things differently, yet the results of those actions have left Wales with the highest death rate of all the UK nations.
“It begs the question of why shutting down the Welsh economy is always the first knee-jerk reaction of this Welsh Labour Government.
“It also questions whether their decision-making was political, and not in fact led by science.”
She added: “The Welsh Labour Government now needs to follow in the footsteps of the UK Government and allow a full return to normality, without caveats or excuses. It’s time to learn to live with Covid.”
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No its the English who are hellbent of doing things differently to every other country on the planet.
Im behind 😷 Boris and 😷 Laura all the way ………indeed far as i can get behind. Playing politics with peoples health is not a good idea 🥺
If you don’t like the rules in wales 🏴 cross the border into England ok
Graham. I share your view 100 per cent. My contribution was tongue in cheek. Those playing politics are those who raise this ie Laura J and her mentor David Davies..
Johnson is literally doing this to take the heat off his illegal parties.
My concern is the health of each community.
The Wales approach has been in most cases appropriate…
though at times a little scoulding.
LAJ is just a cheer leader for David Davies and it is they as i poorly articulated who are playing politics.
Do the Conservatives in Wales have a single idea of their own? Do they have a single positive thing to say about Wales?
All they do is complain about Wales’ elected government, belittle Wales or tell us to be more like England.
Welsh Tories are pathetic they are a million miles from ever winning a majority in the Senedd yet insist in making absurd proclamations that only serves to further distance themselves from the majority of Welsh voters . It begs the question do these people have serious political ambitions or are they just after a gong and a few meaningless letter to follow their mostly unrecognised names
We
In wales must not listen to the English government we do what is best for wales 🏴 in wales 🏴
Laura Anne Jones and the rest of the “Welsh Tories” can get stuffed. Why on earth should we be following what the clown in No 10 is doing?
Just because he’s a clown does not mean he’s always wrong. Drakeford was wrong at Xmas but most of you on here are so biased you cannot see any sense. If MD issued a decree that everyone in Wales must stand on one leg for an hour a day to fight Covid you would applaud him
Grow up.
“plus 98 % of people in Wales have antibodies.” What’s your source for that?
Laura Jones seems so besotted by Boris that she is persuaded that MD should “follow Boris’s lead”. I would suggest to her that it is very fortunate for Wales that MD did not do this, otherwise, we would have ended up with a Welsh Partygate.”
So why did Johnson suddenly drop all restrictions? To divert attention from partygate. He’s been using these tactics for weeks, the savile accusation is another example. He’s prepared to see more deaths to try and save his neck. It won’t be saved, he’ll be gone before the year is out. We in Wales should continue to follow, as much as possible, the science, it’s foolhardy to drop every single safeguard.
They are all just puppets and marionettes dancing for titbits on the end of Fat Shanks’ string…do not be drawn in Mr Drakeford…he means us harm…