THE nanny state endorsed by Boris Johnson, counterproductive Covid policies and animal testing were the topics raised by columnists in the newspapers.

The Daily Mail

Dan Wootton said he could forgive the Prime Minister for many things - from allowing his talented but unelected fiancé, Carrie Symonds to make decisions that should be down to the government to his ‘increasingly Worzel Gummidge hair’ - but not turning into the ‘biggest proponent of the nanny state in a generation.’

“Boris is damning the United Kingdom to a further year of Covid economic carnage, thanks to unnecessary lockdowns and authoritarian policies, throwing our hard-fought vaccine advantage out the window,2 he said. “What is the point of being this far ahead of the rest of the world if we continue to let entire industries crumble and the NHS backlog on non-Covid ailments grow ever more deadly?”

He has a choice of being remembered as the most ill-liberal prime minister in history, he said, or ‘shake off the scientists, the scare merchants and the paranoid to take us out of this devastating lockdown for good before it really is too late for Britain to be Great again.’

The Daily Express

Tim Martin said emergency powers were granted to the Government during the pandemic and the consequent absence of democratic scrutiny is leading to catastrophically poor decision-making, and vast national debt.

“The pub trade, among other industries, has been devastated by patently absurd decisions, dreamt up by a small gang in Downing St, none of which stand up to a moment’s proper scrutiny,” he said.

The rules for pubs - about only opening if they served ‘substantial food’, for example and table service - have no serious scientific credibility, he said.

“Even lockdowns are highly controversial, with many scientists and health professionals openly querying their efficacy.

“Government debt has risen by around £400 billion during the pandemic, much of it wasted on counterproductive policies. Something is deeply amiss in the heart of the UK state - but who will take up the cudgels?”

The Independent

Steve Galster said whatever the origins of Covid it was a zoonotic outbreak.

“The virus jumped from an animal to a person, whether it was from a lab or a market, suggesting tough, clear decisions need to be made on a global scale,” he said. “It’s important to remember that these “test animals” don’t just show up at the lab on their own. Acquiring them takes effort and costs money.”

“We need to experiment on animals to save people, right?,” he asked.

“Perhaps to some degree, but if you consider that 65 per cent or more of emerging infectious diseases in people today come from animals, we should also be asking if the medical industry’s practices are contributing to a problem that it is trying to solve.”