Patrick Christys: Sajid Javid is still holding Christmas to ransom over coronavirus

Lockdowns are sweeping across the continent as Europe becomes…well…the sick man of Europe.

Cases have been spiralling but there is a concerning element to the increased restrictions – I.e. that various political leaders are now floating the idea that vaccines alone are not enough to combat Covid.

There is a worrying ease with which various continental political leaders have effortlessly decided to create a two tier society.

In Austria, the unvaccinated are under house arrest – that’s 2m people. That includes a lot of young people who may well already have some form of natural immunity, but it also includes people who simply cannot take the vaccine for whatever reason – so it’s not just vaccine refusniks who are being barricaded inside, it’s also people who just physically can’t have the jab.

Their justification for this is that about 65% of Austria's population is fully vaccinated - one of the lowest rates in Western Europe.

Meanwhile, the seven-day infection rate is more than 800 cases per 100,000 people, which is one of the highest in the region.

Germany is also locking down the unvaccinated, Greece is banning them from any indoor spaces, many public spaces as well.

Latvia, where 59% of the population are fully vaccinated, re-imposed lockdown last month and has banned lawmakers who refuse the vaccine from voting on laws and taking part in debates until the middle of next year. They will also see their pay docked.

Now, it’s worth noting that as things stand in this country our government hasn’t ruled out increasing restrictions. In fact, Sajid Javid is still holding Christmas to ransom.

How can that be the case? How can it even be a question that we would increase restrictions? Last Christmas was a bit of a washout, but hardly anybody in the country was vaccinated - the jab had only just been invented and only the extremely vulnerable and frontline NHS workers had been offered it.

We knew less about the virus, we were more scared of it we, as a nation, were much more vulnerable.

But we’re not there anymore. We’re on to the booster jabs now, we’ve got vast swathes of antibodies coursing through our veins, we know more about ventilation being a key line of defence and, crucially, we’ve all had a year and a half to get our heads around what’s happening and make our own minds up about whether or not we want to celebrate Christmas together with friends or family.

We have to be allowed to make our own decisions. There seems to be a worrying trend among some politicians, who have never been presented with an opportunity or an excuse to exercise as much control over peoples lives as they can do now – to feel as though they know best, that we’re all just helpless idiots who, if it wasn’t for the nurturing hand of some suit from regional government, we’d all be wandering around wearing loin cloths, fighting each other for what scraps of food remain inside a burning Aldi store.

Just look at what’s happening in Australia - Dictator Dan Andrews, Premier of Victoria, who is in favour of internment camps surrounded by electric fences and who talks to people like they’re idiotic school children. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again – it’s the role he was born to play, because he looks like a failed geography teacher whose wife has just left him.

Until someone invents a better vaccine, or other medical treatments as well, this is as well protected as we can possibly be from Covid.

Cases are down, deaths are down, hospital admissions are down…there is no need whatsoever for this country to introduce measures like other European nations. Some members of our government and medical community seem to think we need saving from ourselves, I think perhaps we need saving from them.