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."

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)