Dan Wootton: Sadiq Khan is now using masks to try and stoke division

Masks

What is it with the left’s increasingly craven attempts to introduce laws about what we wear and how we choose to live our life?

The country’s virtue signaller in chief – London’s failed mayor Sadiq Khan – is today demanding the government give him the power to make not wearing a mask on public transport illegal.

Having travelled on the tube every day from my home in East London to our studio in West London, I can tell Khan there would be a hell of a lot of criminals – because on many journeys up to half the carriage have chosen to ride unmuzzled.

Given the crime epidemic in lawless London, where muggings, stabbings and burglaries are routinely ignored by law enforcement, it astonishes me that he thinks policing a pointless and political mask mandate would be the best use of police time.

Such a demand is also scantly supported by facts. As Dr Colin Axon – a top academic and professor in mechanical engineering who has previously advised the government on ventilation – recently told me here on Tonight Live there is very little to suggest face coverings prevent the spread of Covid. In fact, in his words, they are little more than “comfort blankets”.

As he explained so sensibly, non-medical face coverings actually have gaps that are invisible to the naked eye but at least 1,000 times the size of viral Covid particles. But Khan wants to follow the lead of Democrats in the US where mask use is a sign that you just must be a good person. That’s why I’m regularly treated to the ludicrous sight of woke folk wearing masks while driving in the car alone or on a run outside.

Sadiq Khan is now using masks to try and stoke division. We are meant to live in a free society. That’s why women are allowed to walk around in burkas or bikinis, depending on their personal beliefs. The same must go for masks.

Channel crisis

There is now a full-blown migrant crisis on the Channel – which both the government and mainstream broadcast media want to pretend isn’t posing a grave national security risk to the UK.

The official figure yesterday was 482 arrivals, a new record and taking the total to over 10,000. And they’re only the arrivals we know about. The Home Secretary Priti Patel – who I have a lot of time for – has been speaking tough, but it’s now obvious dramatic action is needed.

Dan O’Mahoney, the Home Office’s clandestine Channel threat commander, said: “There is an unacceptable rise in dangerous small boat crossings across the Channel because of a surge in illegal migration across Europe. We have signed a strengthened agreement with our French counterparts to increase police patrols on French beaches and enhance intelligence sharing.”

I’m sorry, that’s no longer good enough. The French do not want to help. We must take matters into our own hands.

Crippling flight prices

Flights out of newly red listed Mexico before the deadline on Sunday have soared to £7,000 as folk desperately attempt to avoid enforced quarantine in a London hotel costing £2,285 per adult.

Surely it would be reasonable for people already in a country with a return ticket to avoid quarantine if they test negative?

And what about the PCR test sham for everyone arriving from even those countries on the green and amber list?

As the Chairman of the Transport Select Committee Huw Merriman revealed today:

“Passengers are being ripped off with expensive PCR tests. We are told this is justified to sequence for variants but only 5% of tests are. This barrier to affordable travel needs to stop now.”

He’s completely right – there should be no compulsory PCR tests from green and amber list countries.

Antibodies

Let’s end with the best news of the day – more amazing figures on antibodies released by the Office for National Statistics. In England, 93.6 percent of over-16s tested positive for antibodies.

It was 93.2 percent in Wales, 90.7 percent in Northern Ireland and 92.5 percent in Scotland. Herd immunity is coming, folks.