News Round-Up

• “We should be outraged by the rules, not the rule-breakers” – Why has it taken the media so long to wake up to the cruelty of lockdown, asks Joanna Williams in Spiked.
• “The Downing Street party row has finally woken us up to the madness of lockdown” – Overnight we were plunged into a surreal, paranoid, despotic bureaucracy and yet we had largely blanked that out, writes Michael Deacon in the Telegraph.
• “Rishi Sunak leaves Boris Johnson in limbo as he fails to offer full support” – Prime Minister was ‘right to apologise’ over Downing Street garden party, but Chancellor declines to join Cabinet chorus backing his boss, reports the Telegraph.
• “Boris Johnson promises quick decision on cutting Covid isolation to five days” – Modelling by the UKHSA submitted to the Cabinet Office suggests reduction would bring low increase in risk, reports the Telegraph.
• “Boris Johnson must clear up this mess if he is to survive” – The Prime Minister must outline a new approach to Covid and show his MPs that the Government dysfunction is at an end, says the Telegraph in its leading article.
• “The sooner Boris is gone the better” – Once you have removed Boris’s popularity with the electorate, you have removed the entire point to the man – and there is nothing left, writes Rod Liddle in the Spectator.
• “Full list: the Tories calling for Boris to go” – Handy list from the Speccie, kept up to date.
• “Like it or not, Boris Johnson will survive this” – The worst of the crisis has already passed; the Prime Minister has admitted he went to the party, argues Eliot Wilson in the Telegraph.
• “Why did scientists suppress the lab-leak theory?” – In private, they said it was plausible. In public, they called it a conspiracy theory, writes Matt Ridley on Spiked.
• “I was duped by the Covid lab leak deniers” – Matt Ridley again, this time in the Telegraph.
• “Why should I be sacked for refusing the vaccine?” – Dr. Steve James, who directly challenged Sajid Javid over the vaccine mandate last week, sets out his views more fully in the Spectator.
• “Dr Steve James: I’d sacrifice my job over vaccine mandates” – Watch UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers meet the NHS consultant who took on the Health Secretary.
• “In praise of Novak Djokovic” – “I am hugely enjoying the Novak Djokovic drama Down Under,” writes Damian Reilly in the Speccie. “What’s not to like? It is extremely funny. Quite possibly the world’s healthiest man has been deemed a danger to public health in a nation where two thirds of adults are overweight or obese by a government that has, at various points over the last two years, done a more than passable impression of having gone completely nuts.”
• “Ep 35. Game Set & Match – The Real Normal” – On the latest podcast episode, the boys discuss Novak Djokovic and the ongoing dilemma of trying to play tennis in the most insane nation there is (Australia), plus they analyse Sajid Javid’s hospital visit and introduce a new section on woke.
• “Djokovic’s rare victory against Australia’s COVID-19 tyranny” – The breathtaking arrogance of the Government’s continued stance on Djokovic’s COVID-19-detention is more frightening than the original blunder, writes Ramesh Thakur in the Japan Times.
• “Omicron update: London followed Gauteng after all” – A long list of reasons why the South African experience of Omicron would not necessarily be replicated in the U.K. was offered by high-status science commentators throughout December, yet all were wrong, writes Pieter Streicher in UnHerd.
• “Nicola Sturgeon is wrong – learning to live with Covid must not mean masks forever” – ‘Mission creep’ allows extraordinary measures to become a normal part of the state’s public health arsenal, writes Henry Hill in the Telegraph.
• “Lord Frost: Covid lockdowns were a serious mistake – the Government needs to do ‘stuff that works’” – In this week’s Planet Normal podcast, the former Brexit Secretary urges ministers to cut the ‘Covid theatre’ such as vaccine passports and masks.
• “2021 Collateral Global Impact Report” – A year in review from the organisation founded by Professors Sunetra Gupta, Carl Heneghan, Martin Kulldorff and Jay Bhattacharya to monitor lockdown harms worldwide.
• “Unvaccinated Quebecers will have to pay a health tax, Legault says” – Quebec Premier François Legault said the province would be demanding a significant “health contribution” from Quebecers who refuse to get their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine in the coming weeks, CBC News reports. 
• “Witch hunt of radio host who dared to question the booster jab” – James Bembridge in TCW on LBC’s brutal defenestration of counter-extremism activist Maajid Nawaz.
• “We’re all paying the price for rampant eco hypocrisy” – Labour and Tories rail at energy costs, but dare not question the green policies that have increased them, writes Madeleine Grant in the Telegraph.
• “The mind virus killing academia” – Universities are just a site for elite status-jousting, writes Ed West on his Substack page.
• “When will firms like Ben & Jerry’s stop lecturing us?” – Almost 70% of respondents to a recent survey said bosses should instead focus on communicating how they can better improve customer service, writes Patrick West in the Spectator.