Rob Lyons

This week’s headlines saying 2020 was the worst year for UK excess deaths since WWII are OTT. Adjusted for population, it was actually the worst since 2003. But don’t pretend we don’t have a real and terrible disease to deal with.

Lockdowns are the measure of first resort for many countries in the battle against Covid-19, but had we properly looked at their devastating side effects, governments would not be so keen on them.

A year of living dangerously with the virus has changed our world, and the way we live, forever. And not always in a good way, especially for those who dislike authoritarianism & cherish hard-won freedoms.

The medical profession's lobbying to overturn the UK’s mild relaxation of Covid-19 rules confirms the biggest lesson of 2020: that safety now trumps freedom.

Corporations spend millions on ‘preserving’ forests so as to carry on polluting and pretend they’re green & carbon-neutral. The reality is the only thing being 'offset' is facing up to the awful realities of a Net Zero agenda.

Vaccines are a wonder of modern medicine and serious reactions are vanishingly rare, so let's reduce ‘vaccine hesitancy’ by guaranteeing help for the few who are affected.

The new documentary I Am Greta follows the Swedish soothsayer from when she began her protests in 2018 to today. It was intended to show her global campaigning impact, but my feeling after watching it was just one of pity.

Boris Johnson is almost certainly immune, after contracting a serious case early this year. The fact he’s now self-isolating after coming into contact with an MP who tested positive shows the quarantine rules’ pointless rigidity.

There’s a grave danger that Boris Johnson’s decision to shut down the country again is based on a flawed, one-eyed interpretation of the facts, and that the ‘cure’ will be worse than the disease, again. Have we learned nothing?

If you’re pinning your hopes on a vaccine for Covid-19 bringing back ‘normal life’, think again. We won’t see one until next year, not everyone will get it and it may not even stop transmission.