I Intend To Escape ......................And Come Back

2021 in an image

The Winter Solstice is here (the longest day) and it seems appropriate to consider the year, what we have done and what we have not done.

If I had to summarise 2021 in a single image, it is below:

Where Covid19 Leaves Us

It seems likely the Oxford Covid vaccine will be rolled out across the UK in January.

I was one of over 600 people to take part in the trials for this in Corby, Northamptonshire. Finishing off the tests on Thursday, I was told only 5 people had negative reactions to the jabs, none serious. That is less than 1 percent.

It seems appropriate to be deeply pessimistic about the future. The economic hit we have suffered from Covid has not been fully grasped. The gap between the security and status of public and private sector workers is deepening, and may get worse. The civil liberties lost at times this year, and the cultural revolution that piggy backed on top of the George Floyd protests in America, disastrous. There is not much point having a parliament full of human rights lawyers if, as I found, the police stop you playing football in the park with your children. On race, Britain is not the United States, no matter how much our woke warriors wish it to be.

Internationally, China is greatly strengthened by the events of 2020, the west economically weakened and culturally divided. Those cultural divisions will accelerate in 2021.

But this vaccine is a sign of progress, in the middle of reaction. It is green shoots sticking out of the concrete, and for that we should be grateful.

We should be wary of laws criminalising conspiracy theories

The Metropolitan Police, and the leadership of the Labour Party, have both spoken out about anti-vaccination opinions, and activists who are circulating such views on social media. As we move closer to immunising people against Covid19, these debates are likely to increase.

I think it would be a bad idea to create legislation against these views, and set out my arguments in this piece for Spiked.

In Praise of Bob Moran

Who is the UK's best political cartoonist?

This year that mantle has been claimed by The Telegraph's Bob Moran, who has produced a series of superb cartoons articulating the loss of personal freedom, and the fears experienced by those trying to understand the changes that have followed in the wake of Covid19.

You can view his website, with a compilation of this years cartoons, here. My personal favourite is from July, and features our national dog, the British Bulldog both scared and muzzled.