GB News presenter Neil Oliver has proclaimed that he would “cheerfully risk catching Covid for the sake of freedom” in a bizarre monologue on GB News.
Speaking during his own show Neil Oliver Live, the presenter described how he believed “it’s all and only about freedom.”
“If your freedom means that I might catch Covid from you then so be it. If my freedom means that you might catch Covid from me then so be it. That’s honestly how I see it,” he said.
“For the sake of freedom, yours and mine together, I will cheerfully risk catching Covid - that is a chance, one among many, I am prepared to take, and happily.”
ICYMI: Neil Oliver: 'For the sake of freedom – yours and mine together – I will cheerfully risk catching Covid.' S… https://t.co/we6cWMex52— GB News (@GB News) 1627846200
Of course, this take didn’t go down well at all, as people took to Twitter to criticise Oliver’s monologue, highlighting the fact that vulnerable people with medical conditions and disabilities are still at risk.
@GBNEWS So would you cheerfully risk passing it onto me? I’m immune suppressed so you might well be giving me a death sentence.— ThaiFilipGirlSponsor (@ThaiFilipGirlSponsor) 1627847464
@GBNEWS Your disregard for the 130000 that have died is astonishing.— Alba gu bràth 🏴 🇪🇺 💙 (@Alba gu bràth 🏴 🇪🇺 💙) 1627882393
Using so many words to tell us he's scared of needles https://t.co/jDnvccOnLF— Lucie Fur (@Lucie Fur) 1627900070
True freedom is when you’re dead, opines the bad philosopher https://t.co/pB1CSFj4Fb— Zorg (@Zorg) 1627896919
" I will cheerfully risk giving a variant of Covid to an immunosuppressed person. " What a guy! https://t.co/OJqh7xMqda— ReturnOfTheMehGuy (@ReturnOfTheMehGuy) 1627898236
What fragment of respect I had for Neil Oliver has been well and truly flushed down the toilet. https://t.co/xG6729q70f— Ross Brannigan (@Ross Brannigan) 1627900391
https://t.co/kcBz6hz73f https://t.co/lUZDlJoevO— Scott (@Scott) 1627905430
“Neil Oliver: “If my drunk-driving kills you or your family, so be it. That’s the cost of my freedom. That’s honest… https://t.co/rEOjcGD3vR— Not Boris Johnson MP #JohnsonOut (@Not Boris Johnson MP #JohnsonOut) 1627897381
What is all this, quite frankly bollocks, about FREEDOM!!? Not once during this pandemic have I felt I have or woul… https://t.co/X74praUpHL— Maria Ogborn (@Maria Ogborn) 1627904603
"For the sake of freedom — yours and mine together — I will drive dangerously and to hell with the consequences." https://t.co/8bzUh0vzaK— 𝕽𝖔𝖇𝖊𝖗𝖙 𝕳𝖚𝖓𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖉𝖔𝖓 🏹 (@𝕽𝖔𝖇𝖊𝖗𝖙 𝕳𝖚𝖓𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖉𝖔𝖓 🏹) 1627897323
Oliver also made multiple references to World War II and described how in the beginning of the fight to prevent the tyranny of the Nazi’s “it was a minority -- a minority outgunned and shouted down by fellow citizens -- who feared that deals might be struck with tyranny, that stood up and shouted no.”
Basically comparing the “tyranny of the Nazi’s” to those getting the jab and support the lockdowns and those who stopped the Nazi’s to anti-vaxxers and those who are anti-lockdown.
Later he referred to the Battle of Britain, and said: “Those Spitfires and Hurricanes were piloted by men and also by boys not long out of school. They risked everything for freedom. Mine and yours. A last measure of devotion.”
Oliver ended his monologue by making further strange remarks between the Battle of Britain and the pandemic, and compared people who shared his views to the British fighter pilots who were “outgunned.”
“There’s another Battle of Britain being fought now, being fought by a minority outgunned and shouted down by those who would accept freedom handed to them by MPs on condition that they do as they are told.
“That’s not freedom, that is tyranny and I for one will not live under that yolk.”
Oliver fails to acknowledge that over 130,000 people have died from Covid in the UK since the start of the pandemic.
People on Twitter also slammed Oliver for using the sacrifice of the war dead by comparing them to himself in order to justify his own views regarding Covid.
@GBNEWS @thecoastguy ... appropriating his and others wars to spin this stuff is an insult frankly. Pathetic.— Otto English (@Otto English) 1627903009
This an insult to my grandfather and everyone else whose parents and grandparents fought and died in the war agains… https://t.co/JPP0podPAa— R.A. Ahlfeld (@R.A. Ahlfeld) 1627900474
It's tough for these romantics who were never called to show the heroism that defined their teachers' generation. D… https://t.co/330j4p1NDh— James McKemey (@James McKemey) 1627900018
@GBNEWS Tell this appalling man from me that my 2 uncles did not die in World War 2 for him to spout his disgusting… https://t.co/oyzfJ702dQ— PeteMilford (@PeteMilford) 1627903240
@GBNEWS What a terrible misuse of history. If he was 20 in 1939 would he have refused conscription in the name of f… https://t.co/Ug3Ycf37qS— Captain Easychord (@Captain Easychord) 1627905719
@GBNEWS @MartinDaubney Oliver re-runs WWII. Fine. In that event, British people endured six years of dreadful un… https://t.co/rpXnH6JTeS— Trixie O’Blivion 🚢 (@Trixie O’Blivion 🚢) 1627813018