Dr Gary Sidley

• Coronababble (https://www.coronababble.com/)

• Health Advisory & Recovery Team (HART) (https://www.hartgroup.org/)

• Smile Free (https://smilefree.org/)

"Dr Sidley is a freelance writer, trainer, and blogger. In 2013, he opted for early retirement from his post of Professional Lead/Consultant Clinical Psychologist after 33 continuous years of employment in the UK’s National Health Service. He began his career as a psychiatric nurse in 1980 and qualified as a clinical psychologist in 1989. In 2000, he obtained his PhD for a thesis exploring the psychological predictors of suicidal behaviour. In early 2020, he became extremely concerned about the Government’s response to the ‘coronavirus crisis’; his writings on this subject can be found on his ‘CORONABABBLE’ blog. Gary is also a member of the Health Advisory & Recovery Team (HART), and the Smile Free campaign to lift all mask mandates. Gary is currently leading on a research project into the UK’s deployment of behavioural science strategies during the Covid event, and the ethical implications of the state using these methods on its own people."

Update

• Laura Dodsworth, "The Three Rs of Fear Messaging in a Global Pandemic: Recommendations, Ramifications and Remediation", The Free Mind (26 April 2024) (https://www.thefreemind.co.uk/p/the-three-rs-of-fear-messaging-in)

Items mentioned in / relevant to the interview

• Gary Sidley, "UK Government Use of Behavioural Science Strategies in Covid-Event Messaging : Responsibility and Communication Ethics in Times of ‘Crisis’ ", Association for Humanistic Psychology in Britain, Self & Society, No. 11 (2023-2024) [https://ahpb.org/index.php/gary-sidley-article/?doing_wp_cron=1713791000.7633850574493408203125].

• __________, "Nudgers, nudgers everywhere - the ubiquity of behavioural science", Coronababble (12 December 2023)

• __________, "The dubious ethics of covert psychological strategies - the BPS respons, Coronababble (18 February 2021)

• __________, "The delayed response of the BPS to ethical questions about covert 'nudging' ", Coronababble (06 April 2021)

• __________, "The ethics of using covert strategies - a letter to the British Psychological Society", Coronababble (13 December 2021)

• __________, "The persecution of the unvaccinated: Are the behavioural scientists culpable?", Coronababble (02 February 2022)

• __________, "Who is responsible for inflicting unethical behavioural-science 'nudges' on the British people?", Coronababble (31 May 2022)

• Richard H. Thaler & Cass Sunstein, Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness, Yale (2008)

• "Ministers had ‘chilling’ secret unit to curb lockdown dissent : Critics of Covid restrictions targeted by counter-disinformation team at the heart of the Government", The Telegraph (02 June 2023)

• SPI-B (https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/independent-scientific-pandemic-influenza-group-on-behaviours-spi-b)

• The Behavioural Insights Team (https://www.bi.team/)

• MINDSPACE via Institute for Government (https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publications/mindspace)

• Jacques Ellul, Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes, (1965)

Acknowledgements

• The views expressed in this podcast by Dr Gary Sidley are his responsibility alone. They do not necessarily reflect the views of The Mind Renewed.

• The image of Gary Sidley is Copyright © Gary Sidley, all rights reserved, and used here with kind permission.

• Podcast theme music: Chillout Me by Antony Raijekov from Jazz U album (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

• TMR wishes to state that the fact that third-party creative materials appear in TMR productions should in no way be understood as implying that the creators of such materials endorse anything published by TMR.

• Podcast artwork (below) by The Mind Renewed (CC BY-NC 4.0)