Argonaut's Norris: 'Fraud' lockdown was the 'biggest policy error since WWI'

Manager critical of Westminster's response

Lauren Mason
clock • 6 min read

The UK Government's decision to implement a lockdown was one of the "biggest policy errors since 1914", according to Argonaut's Barry Norris, who believes "thoughtful debate" on the Government's response to the pandemic has been "shut down" and that "following expert opinion blindly" is "normally the road to ruin".

The manager, who runs the FP Argonaut Absolute Return, European Alpha and European Income Opportunities funds, believes the UK Government has been "talking to the wrong experts" in terms of how best to deal with the pandemic, and believes a Sweden-style approach would have been more beneficial for the country from both an economic and societal perspective. As such, he has taken out shorts on "essentially all vaccine developers", although he is still cautious on retail and leisure stocks given the potential long-term impact lockdown will have on their revenues and business models.  "Th...

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