Mark Dolan: It’s good MPs aren’t wearing masks, it’s far easier to see that they’re laughing at us

Masks are now mandatory for everyone on the parliamentary estate… except MPs.

There’s a surprise. When is this Covid theatre going to end?

Masks that have been woefully discredited by top experts on this very show, those pathetic Perspex screens in shops which have since been accused of making things worse, by trapping the aerosols which carry Covid.

Covid passports we read today may increase the spread of the virus with more people gathering at home instead of going out.

And what about endless hand sanitising, which again appears not significant to the spread.

There's no end to this: arrows in supermarkets, the one in one out policy, you name it. It's all got to go.

And like MPs, we should all have the freedom, as to when and where we wear a mask. And given the social exclusion they create, the possible health impacts, their impact on the economy and of course the environmental catastrophe that they bring, I'd like us to see the back of them all together.

I actually think it’s good that MPs aren’t wearing masks, because it's far easier for us to see, that they're laughing at us.

Joanna Lumley on rationing

Posh actress Joanna Lumley, has said that we should consider rationing, similar to that seen during the second world war, to tackle climate change.

Here’s what she had to say: “That was how the war was – stuff was rationed – and at some stage I think we might have to go back, to some kind of system of rationing, where are you given a certain number of points, and it's up to you how to spend them, whether it's buying a bottle of whiskey or flying in an aeroplane.”

God, I need a bottle of whisky, after hearing that rubbish. First of all, this is woefully impractical. How does weighing out bags of sugar, distributing vouchers for travel, and allocating households 11 minutes of central heating a day, actually save the planet?

When China, Brazil, India and the United States, continue to guzzle energy for fun. What she's proposing places an enormous amount of power in the hands of the state, it destroys the individual and removes any sense of self determination.

It's communism pure and simple, from someone who has enjoyed decades of the fruits of capitalism, from her successful film and TV career. Too many people have used the coronavirus pandemic, to usher in socialism - the furlough scheme was effectively Karl Marx’s wet dream, paying people to stay at home.

And brutal state control, has been the consequence of Covid measures. What’s currently happening in Australia and New Zealand is the stuff of nightmares.

The fight we’ve got on our hands and one I'll be fighting every day on this television network, is to get all of that control lifted, and place power back in the hands of you, the people. But no sooner have we reached what is hopefully the tail end of the pandemic, that there are now forces out there that hope to transfer all of the instruments of control from Covid across to climate.

And all of this is a bit rich coming from Joanna Lumley, a woman who has in recent years fronted multiple globetrotting tv shows, in which she is basically paid to go on holiday and sip champagne on a 747, visiting Japan, India and the Nile, whilst she wags her fingers at the rest of us, for wanting to have a hard earned summer holiday abroad.

This is a classic example of the metropolitan elite at work, with one rule for them, another for the rest of us. Whether it's Covid measures or now tackling climate issues, these are two sides of the same coin.

Everything seems to be about destroying the economy, controlling peoples lives and telling people what to do.

Let's not have a wealthy famous actress, a vegan Swedish teenager or anyone else for that matter, tell us what car to drive, what temperature our homes should be and what goes onto our dinner plate.

The only thing we should be rationing, is this scientifically debatable nonsense. Change the script Joanna, because your latest role as eco warrior, is far, from absolutely fabulous.

Censoring tech giants

Novara media is a left-leaning political channel, which for a few hours today was removed by YouTube for supposed offenses based around their content. YouTube said they sometimes make the "wrong call" when reviewing flagged content but Novara media were having none of it and are demanding a step-by-step explanation.

A timely reminder to the frankly woke voices at Novara media and elsewhere that if you support cancel culture - which many on the left say doesn’t exist - it will eventually cancel you.

We've been here before, my old employer talk radio was removed from Youtube for a day or two, and of course countless highly respected individuals and organisations have been suspended from or permanently removed from Twitter, Youtube and beyond, including former President Donald Trump.

Now I don't agree with Novara media and much of their content - they propagate a lot of bonkers economic and social policies that in my view would destroy the country.

But last time I checked, we have free speech and we live in a democracy and I therefore defend their right to have a platform and be on air. We need more people to disagree with each other not fewer, more argument and debate, not less.

We have forgotten how to do discourse in this country, with people trapped in echo chambers, agreeing with each other and considering those with a different view to be the enemy.

Removing voices like Novara media and anyone else for that matter, will just deepen the crisis and ferment more division. Fleet Street is a great template.

When I give you the newspaper front pages later in today's show, I'll be quoting from the left leaning Mirror, Guardian and Independent, and the right leaning Mail, Times and Telegraph. And long may that continue.

We need a diversity of views and we need to be exposed to opinions we don't share.

Who decides what is health disinformation? And what’s in gods name is bad information when it’s at home? George Orwell eat your heart out. 2021? More like 1984.

And we cannot have perfectly reasonable debate shut down by these tech giants either. Who can blame Donald Trump for creating a new social media platform.

The boundaries of free speech in this country should not be decided by a Californian billionaire in a hoodie. These politically biased conglomerates, with their own agenda, have no right to cancel voices that don't fit their prescribed narrative.

Frankly, they have too much power and we should cancel them.