Putting the commie in committee

Last month an epidemiologist called Professor Michael Baker described the UK government’s decision to free its people from Covid restrictions on 19 July as ‘barbaric’ and an ‘experiment’. Professor Baker lives in the little-known hermit kingdom of New Zealand — a country which, under the guidance of people like himself, has banned almost all foreign travel and imposed long domestic lockdowns. Such is the grip Baker and his friends have on the country that the appearance of just two Covid infections in the entire population caused the nation to go into a hysterical spasm, with much bed-wetting, shrieking and governmental resignations. You are allowed to die of anything in New Zealand, but not Covid.

It would be interesting to know if Baker still thinks Boris Johnson is ‘barbaric’, given that our infection rate continues to decrease daily — as the consequence, one assumes, of our swift vaccination policy. There is no end in sight, however, to New Zealand’s estrangement from the entire world, and logically speaking there never can be. While Covid exists, anywhere, New Zealand will remain shut. So, for ever, then? The scientists have complete sway in New Zealand because the government is left-wing, and Covid has taught us that the more left-wing a government is, the more it will accede to injunctions to ban all travel and keep the country on furlough in perpetuity, so that nobody anywhere ever dies.

In the UK we have a nominally rightish government, although nowhere near rightish enough for some. The left-wing input comes from the scientific advisers within Sage, whom Jeremy Clarkson recently described, with some accuracy, as a bunch of ‘commies’. It is likely Mr Clarkson had a certain Susan Michie in mind particularly. Michie advises the government on ‘behavioural compliance’ regarding Covid restrictions, and if that phrase has a slightly post-Stalinist ring to it, then Michie is extremely well-suited to her role.