Mark Dolan: I never want to be forced to wear a mask again

If you want to see what leadership looks like? Look at the US Florida Governor Ron de Santis, telling those around him to get rid of their masks.

It feels like a moment in the conversation. As was this...

In the summer of 2020, one afternoon at 4:05 on the radio, I famously chopped up a mask during my opening monologue. The video went viral and was ultimately watched by 10 million people on all platforms. Prior to the mask mandates, we’d had weeks of top government experts, including Jenny Harries, Jonathan Van Tam and Antony Fauchi in America, saying you don't need to wear a mask, or in the case of Dr Jenny Harries, that they could make matters worse. “Facemask could increase risk of infection”, medical chief warns. She also said the evidence on masks was not strong in either direction. Hardly a ringing endorsement.

Sadly there was a flip, a u-turn effectively, and the mandate came in. Ignoring four decades of research into face coverings, showing scant evidence they could stop the spread of a seasonal respiratory virus. So what changed? Well, covering our faces, was in my view about behaviour, not science. It was about reminding everyone there’s a pandemic, and it was about governments and corporations, being SEEN to do something – that famous Covid theatre. And of course mask wearing on a grand scale, is a symbol of compliance. I'm wearing a mask, I'm doing what I was told, I've covered my face, I am obedient, I am your servant, I am your slave. I personally think they are evil. I’m horrified that people still walk the streets, in fresh air, clad in these ghoulish devices. In my view they are the Devil’s work. How unsurprising therefore that mask wearing is so commonplace, in the hateful dictatorship of China.

I can’t believe along with lockdowns and social control, that we’ve imported those methods, values and optics to our shores. Now I've always said if you want to wear a mask, knock yourself out. Wear three if you like. Perhaps it will make you a nicer person. Forgive us terrible people, who would quite like the correct amount of oxygen, to enter our lungs every five seconds. And not breathe back in, what’s just come out. Sorry. Hope that doesn't make me too much of a diva.

The masks, of course, have become political, dividing the population between those who support lockdowns and other unprecedented government interventions, and those who value a bit of bodily autonomy, and the desire to choose. You know freedom. Remember that? Except that freedom has become a four letter word. And of course freedom should involve the right, to wear or not wear a mask, but I'm now starting to think that the government should actively DISCOURAGE mask wearing. Some people may feel reassured by them, and if so, no problem. Although it fills my heart with joy, to see people, in the so-called vulnerable groups, going about their lives without masks. There are so many battle-axe old ladies in my local charity shop, perusing the ailes, mask-free. They trust the vaccine, they trust their immune system and perhaps they’ve read the data on masks. Praise the lord.

So I believe, for all the propaganda we had to wear them, it should go the other way now, to phase them out. I've already thought of a catchphrase – save lives, don't wear a mask. How so? Well retired NHS consultant clinical psychologist Dr Gary Sidley

has told me on this show, that face masks are not good for mental health. They diminish human interaction – we can't speak to each other properly, hear each other properly, or see facial expressions. So they strip the joy out of life, impair social connections and diminish our humanity.

I hate masks with a vengeance. They quite literally turn our society into a faceless dystopia. People walking around like zombies, like it's the apocalypse. Please don't tell me that these masks are optimum for human health either. I'd love to meet the medic who can convince me that covering your airways for prolonged periods of time isn’t ultimately harmful. I suspect there are two holes here and one big one here for a reason.

And what about the environmental impact? These hellish surgical masks, so discredited they're not even accepted in Austria and Germany, are not recyclable, taking hundreds of years to degrade in the ground, polluting the earth as they do it, and forming a plastic mountain in the sea.

Ultimately that plastic impacts sea life and goes into fish. The fish that we then eat. So these wonderful face masks, that make you such a nice person, enter the human food chain and slowly poison all of us. Well done everyone.

What about the impact on the economy? Top entrepreneur Luke Johnson told me on this programme that face coverings create a mood of gloom and pessimism, which dampens economic activity. Have you tried on clothes with a face mask? Waste of time. So they’re likely to have an economic impact too. Anything that impedes human interaction and behaviour will impact the economy. Why does that matter? Because a healthy economy pays for all of the things that we rightly expect – investment in the NHS, schools, welfare, housing, infrastructure, police oh, and as the last few days may have reminded you, we kind of need a military too. Cloth masks are no better of course. With The Mail reporting this week they allow through 90% of particles.

Why pick this fight now, with mask mandates gone? Because I am certain, like boomerangs, malaria and Arnold Schwarzenegger – they’ll be back. Like lockdowns, masks are always going to be the mechanism by which the state exerts control over us. They will be the foot in the door, the supposedly low-level measure that could ultimately take us towards tougher restrictions. If they will cover your face and even vaccinate you against your will, which is what vaccine mandates in certain professions effectively is, the sky is the limit.

Your face is sovereign territory - it should never belong to someone else.

Masks no doubt help criminals too – what hope do cops have identifying an attacker on CCTV with a mask and hat on?

And what about the science? Dr Colin Axon, former SAGE advisor, told me on this programme we should not wear masks. He said the particles of the virus are between 1,000 and 5,000 times smaller than the holes in a mask.

Still not convinced? Let me pose a simple question. You know about Ebola. That terrible virus with a fatality rate of up to 90%, according to the World Health Organisation. If Ebola was airborne, would you feel protected by a mask? I rest my case.

So if you don't get rid of masks, you leave the door open for all of the other madness. Covid theatre is one expression, Covid b******* is another. So my words today are the same as they were in the summer of 2020.

‘If you want to save lives and get the country back on track, the only option is to get back to normal. The first step to achieving that is to get rid of these wretched, god awful, damned, blinking, uncomfortable, scientifically empty, useless masks.’

Let me never have to do that again.