London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

Ex-Supreme Court judge says UK must learn to live alongside Covid-19

Ex-Supreme Court judge says UK must learn to live alongside Covid-19

Lord Jonathan Sumption, who is also a medieval historian, wrote an article in which he said: 'Our ancestors lived with far worse epidemic diseases without rushing to put their heads in a bag'. Lord Sumption believes that Sweden's approach of no lockdown would be better . He notes the spike in cases in countries who have lifted lockdowns recently.
Ex-Supreme Court judge Lord Jonathan Sumption today called on Britain to learn to live alongside Covid-19 because 'there have been far worse diseases'.

Lord Jonathan, who is also a medieval historian, praised Sweden's approach to the pandemic, after the nation bucked the global trend and opted against a lockdown.

In his piece for The Telegraph, he said Sweden had a 'substantially lower' death rate than Britain — but admitted it was 'fashionable' to rubbish its approach.

Official figures show Sweden has suffered 564.4 coronavirus deaths for every million people. In comparison, the rate in the UK is 674.06.

He wrote: 'Their hospitals were never overwhelmed. They never closed their schools. The predicted damage to their economy is about half of ours.'

Writing that 'we cannot keep running away', he added: 'Our ancestors lived with far worse epidemic diseases without rushing to put their heads in a bag.'

Lord Sumption discussed how the Government was forced into lockdown on March 23 by a report from former government adviser Neil Ferguson.

The epidemiologist was nicknamed 'Professor Lockdown' for his grim modelling that predicted 510,000 coronavirus deaths in the 'worst-case scenario'.

Professor Ferguson quit his role on SAGE in May after admitting to breaking his own lockdown rules to allow his mistress to stay at his home.

His Imperial College London team's report added that a lockdown would only work if it was kept in place until there was a vaccine, Lord Sumption noted.

Otherwise the coronavirus — scientifically known as SARS-CoV-2 — would inevitably return, most likely even stronger than before.

Lord Sumption added the report noted aggressive isolation policies 'merely push all transmission to the period after they are lifted'.

This has been seen in countries which have recently lifted lockdowns, with a spike in cases seen in nations such as Spain, Germany, Japan and Hong Kong.

Lord Sumption, last year's BBC Reith Lecturer, believes there were only three options the Government could have taken in terms of lockdown.

These were: No lockdown, indefinite lockdown or lockdown for long enough for NHS intensive care capacity to catch up.

He added that intensive care units seemed to catch up with capacity within a month so the Government's decision to lift lockdown in June was 'six to eight weeks after it had lost any justification even by its own logic'.

And he went on to say that he believes the Government seems to be suggesting that the 'R-number' can be kept below one with social distancing alone, rather than a lockdown.

The R number, or reproduction number, refers to how many people an infectious person spreads the virus to. If it is higher than one, then the number of cases increases exponentially.

Lord Sumption added that if the Government is correct in that belief then the nation could have stuck with strict social distancing measures in March, rather than opting for a lockdown.

He went on to discuss how the UK should go about leaving lockdown and how social distancing should continue indefinitely until a vaccine has been created.

He wrote: 'Our whole transport infrastructure, the buildings in which we work, play and eat out, depend on our being close together.

'We have surrendered our liberty to the virus. Are we to surrender our humanity as well?'

He believes that the only reason the UK and Europe were hit so hard by coronavirus is because of a 'false sense of security'.

While diseases such as Mers, Sars, Ebola, Zika, Asian flu, Hong Kong flu, H1N1 and HIV, all happened in the last 20 years, they barely touched Europe.

He adds that a major UK pandemic was at the top of the National Risk Register since it was published in 2008.

It estimated that a new strain of flu could cause between 50,000 and 750,000 deaths in the UK.

While Lord Sumption admits that Covid-19 is a serious disease, he puts it 'at the bottom end of the scale' when it comes to historical diseases.

He wrote: 'For some people, social distancing will remain a sensible precaution. The rest of us should respect their choice but drop it and get on with out lives.

'We cannot keep running away.'
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×