My goodness. Lord Sumption’s response to a woman with Stage 4 cancer asking why her life isn’t valuable is he didn’t say it isn’t valuable just “less valuable”. This is the figurehead of anti-lockdown movement - comes across as inhumane, almost grotesque

You can watch full debate below, it's actually really interesting. Lord Sumption robustly challenged. His key point seems to be about age. He says "it is absurd to say that the death of someone in their 80s is as tragic as someone in their 20s" (31:30) https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000rhfg/the-big-questions-series-14-episode-1

Where there are scarce resources (e.g. donor organs) you do have to have these horrific debates about who get priority. But to use the argument that some people's live are "more valuable" to protect in the context of lockdown vs. no lockdown is I think extremely problematic

I think many people (me included) will watch and think I kind of understand his point on a philosophical level but my god someone with such a brutalist Ayn Randian view of society shouldn't be anywhere near policy

By the way, the next episode of @BHumanPodcast is about the rights of older people and we discuss exactly these points. Coming next week

This is a point I wanted to make but couldn't quite express it https://twitter.com/bugeyedcreature/status/1350803273859682304?s=20

Lord Sumption says he was taken out of context