Patrick Christys: I fear that we’re now well and truly in the post-truth era

If we live in a world where facts are not facts, and non-facts are facts then, frankly, we’ve lost the plot. And that’s a fact.

But I fear that that’s where we are, don’t you? Just look at the latest Covid variant, Omicron. We’re being told that this is possibly more of a threat than the Delta version. Yet the South African lady who discovered it says it’s mild and you won’t even lose your sense of taste.

We were told it was the Botswana variant that originated in the bodies of people with HIV. Botswana came out and said it actually came from people travelling to the country, none of which had HIV.

Vast swathes of our media are hammering the government, demanding that they take tougher action, that we lock down all in the name of public health and safety.

Well lockdowns mean fewer GP and hospital appointments, they mean crippling mental health problems for many, they mean total isolation for the elderly, they mean the stunting of economic growth and potential job losses - and when people become poorer, their health can often get worse.

We’re entering into a third wave of excess deaths in this country that can’t be explained by Covid - meaning people are dying because of strains on the NHS, lower bed availability in hospitals and, quite possibly, out of fear of going to the hospital or to their GP. Because of the health system’s almost singular focus on Covid…which is being done…to save lives.

But it’s not just our health sector that seems to be suspending fact.

Look at what’s happening in The Channel. The latest line from the woke brigade is that those making the crossings are ‘people, not migrants’. Well they can be both, that’s not a binary choice. Cristiano Ronaldo is a person, he’s also a footballer. Gordon Ramsey is a person, he’s also a chef.

We’re also told that all of these people are asylum seekers. But that is a suspension of fact as well isn’t it.

What happened in the Channel with the deaths of 27 migrants was undoubtedly an absolute tragedy, I shed a tear when I saw the news breaking and I’ve gone on record demanding that this is a turning point and that this madness must be stopped before more lives are lost.

One thing to happen after the incident was that, unlike most channel crossings which are shrouded in secrecy, we were able to find out some information about some of those on board.

Take Mohammed Shekha as an example - the 21-year-old shepherd from Iran’s Kurdish region, who survived the ordeal, said he wanted to come to the UK to find work so he could help pay his sister’s medical bills.

That’s a very noble reason to do anything, but he’s not an asylum seeker. We have to be able to say that, because to claim that he is, is, again, the suspension of fact.

And then let’s take another example - what’s going on with the trans lobby at the moment. There was a headline this week that read like this: ‘Teeside woman accused of exposing penis in public.’ No. ‘Teeside man accused of exposing penis in public.’

Then there’s the whole, men can have a cervix, row that erupted around the time of the Labour Party conference. No, they can’t. I never thought I’d ask this on national TV, but where’s my cervix? You only have to take one look at me to know that I may not necessarily be the world’s biggest expert when it comes to certain parts of the female anatomy, but I am almost certain that the cervix is, very much, a woman thing.

We’re seeing now, according to crime statistics, that more women are committing rape. Well, they’re not, men identifying as women are. Again, that’s the suspension of fact.

Stonewall, the LGBT rights group, say lesbians who don’t want to sleep with trans women are committing sexual racism. No, again, that’s the suspension of logic. Lesbians don’t have to be attracted to a trans woman simply because they’re now a trans woman. Actually, the real fact of the matter is that anyone is allowed to be attracted to anyone else, and to not be attracted to anyone else.

I fear that we’re now well and truly in the post-truth era. And that’s a massive concern. Facts matter, how people feel about those facts, don’t.

We’re not all living in a children’s fantasy, we’re living in reality and there has to be a structure, a law, an order and an objectivity about that reality.

Facts have to mean something and we discredit or ignore those at our peril.

But you know what, maybe I’m just banging my head against a brick wall and I should just get on with it and jump on the bandwagon.