Dan Wootton: We need politicians who will stand up to the doomsday scientists who want to forever change our way of life

Praise for the PM and Health Secretary

As you know, I have been tough on this government’s reluctance to stand up for a return to normal. Not some sort of horrid ‘new normal’, but normality as we knew it in January 2020, banishing 18 months of draconian and dystopian horrors and embracing the estimation that over 90 per cent of Brits now have Covid antibodies, thanks to a mixture of vaccination and natural infection.

But tonight, I am prepared to celebrate two positive signs coming from the two most important figures in government regarding our future management of the coronavirus crisis out of the Conservative party conference.

First, the Prime Minister is expected to use his speech tomorrow in Manchester to encourage – or hopefully demand – white collar workers to return to their desks.

He should be targeting the lazy civil servants – including workshy BBC staffers – who seem to believe they can accept key workers going to their workplace every damn day while they sit in their underwear working half a day while hanging out the washing, taking the dog for a long walk and watching Loose Women.

And there’s another reason why office workers must return to the office, rather than simply the disparity that comes from them thinking they’re somehow better than a taxi driver or supermarket worker.

A return to the office is a key part of the ecosystem that makes our economy sing and supports keeping small businesses alive. And as I have been warning for many months, if bosses soon realise work can be conducted from a living room in Surrey, it’s only a matter of time before a whole heap of those jobs start being redirected to far cheaper offshore offices in India.

The PM needs to get tough and set the right example tomorrow by ordering the civil service to return en masse to the office before our working culture is forever changed.

The second positive sign was the new Health Secretary Sajid Javid indicating he’s not going to be following the lead of his dire predecessor Matt Hancock by being in lockstep with the doomsday scientists of Sage when every decision is made. Asked at the Tory party conference by The Spectator’s Editor Fraser Nelson about the discredited Sage projections that showed cases and hospitalisations would spiral after Freedom Day, Javid replied…

"They’re entitled to come to their own decisions. And I’m entitled not to listen to them.

"Had I listened, we certainly wouldn't have been meeting like this, having a conference and people wouldn’t be getting together with their friends and their family, in what I think is a safe way.

"It’s important that you listen and absorb it and then come to your decision. Sage or any other group, as well-meaning as they are, it’s not their job to make these decisions.

"We need to learn from this and make sure that whether it’s future pandemics or just epidemics, that we all just find a better way to, as best as we can, try and forecast the impact of certain decisions.”

Absolutely superb from Javid there.

We need politicians who will stand up to the doomsday scientists who want to forever change our way of life.

And there's one doomsday scientist in particular that he needs to be ignoring, a certain Neil Ferguson, who’s already projecting the enactment of Plan B despite getting every single projection completely wrong throughout the pandemic.

Yes, Sajid's big test is going to come over December and January – the time when all respiratory illnesses spiral and put the NHS under intense pressure - but we shouldn't listen to Professor Lockdown and roll over just yet.

Cancel Culture

And now the woke mob who embrace cancel culture with a vengeance are coming for children’s books.

A character called Brian Wong , Who Was Never, Ever Wrong from David Walliams’ book The World’s Worst Children is being erased. It comes after criticism from the writer and podcaster Georgie Ma earlier this year who said it was an example of “casual racism”.

How disappointing HarperCollins have taken this spurious complaint to heart.

They confirmed in a statement…

“In consultation with our author and illustrator we can confirm that a new story will be written to replace Brian Wong in future editions of The World’s Worst Children. The update will be scheduled at the next reprint as part of an ongoing commitment to regularly reviewing content.”

What nonsense – a funny rhyme does not equal racism.

Iain Duncan Smith called 'scum'

Was there any consequence behind Labour’s Deputy Leader Angela Rayner branding Tories scum last week?

Well that sort of language has been transported to the Tory conference, with Iain Duncan Smith attacked with a traffic cone last night.

IDS didn’t care, describing the alleged assaulters as “incoherent morons”.

But that's not the point.

If this were a bunch of right-wing activists targeting senior Labour politicians at their conference, it’s all you would have heard about in the media.

Well done, Angela Rayner, you’ve really helped improve the tone of our national conversation. Not!