I realise that I’ve now been in more lockdowns than relationships. This one’s only been going three weeks and already I’m losing track of time. And working from home is no fun—even if you throw a sickie, the golf courses are closed. Still, my mother used to tell me that I’d never achieve anything by lying in bed all day, but now Boris says I’m saving the country! Meanwhile the WHO says it plans on a new naming system to avoid stigmatising countries like the UK, where viruses are found or emerge. (Very thoughtful — though I’d warrant it’s the blushes of their touchy pals in China they are more concerned about!)

In this week’s other news, Dutch customs officials have been confiscating truckers’ ham sandwiches on the grounds that the Brexit deal doesn’t allow imports of meat for personal consumption. (The French customs officials must be kicking themselves that they didn’t think of that one first.)

The Federation of Small Business says a ‘record number’ of small firms will soon close. (Of course, they added the usual lobbyist rider of ‘unless the government steps up support’.) But large companies are shedding labour too. (I just had a decorator in who turned out to be an ex-BA pilot. He made a nice job of the landing.)

Abroad, New Zealand's central bank has been hacked, though it is not known if the hackers got away with any money. (If they tried it here, they’d only find debts.) (Then they’d have lost interest. Geddit?—Ed.) To help close our deficit, HM Treasury is thinking about a wealth tax. (The trick is to stop thinking of it as ‘your’ money.)

But I digress...

Like the enemies of capitalism, the enemies of stupid ideas and policies (that’s us) never sleep. Last year, 2020 (That’s another £1 in the swear box, please—Ed.) was actually one of ASI’s most productive, with a slew of reports on how to speed up testing and other topics that really made a difference. We posted blog commentaries on 366 assorted daftnesses (it was a leap year, after all) and more on positive ideas for reform, economic growth, less bureaucracy, free trade, choice, competition, lower taxes and all sorts of other good stuff. Our webinars and podcasts with leading experts went from a standing start to getting zillions of views and ear-holes, plus very positive comments from around the planet. We spoke online at schools and universities, helped talented students fund their postgraduate studies, trained up gap year interns, pumped out press information, comments and articles, blogged furiously, wrote books that were translated into umpteen languages, and much more.

We do all this, yet still retain our humility (as Donald Trump might say, “I’m very proud of that. Believe me. We have a team of incredible people. There’s nobody bigger and better. Never has been. Ever.”).

This year, we’re going to be doing even more. There’s a world economy to get back on its feet, and lots of pointless taxes and regulations pinning it down. And once again, we’ll be doing this without taking any government money — which is why we rely on people like you to support our vital work.

 

Despite lockdown, my colleague Dr Madsen Pirie maintains his usual infectious chirpiness with a new series of twice-weekly blog posts on reasons for optimism. For instance, 2020 brought us many scientific advances:

There were the SpaceX launches of their Falcon rockets and Dragon vehicles. There were major discoveries by archaeologists and paleontologists. Biochemical engineers created new enzymes that can break down plastic bottles within days. Other successful space launches included the Solar Orbiter and NASA’s new Perseverance Mars rover. China executed a moon landing to return lunar rocks to Earth, while Japan brought back samples from an asteroid.

Closer to earth, though, the big scientific event was the fast track development of innovative vaccines to combat coronavirus:

Messenger RNA vaccines, as well as more conventional ones, were able to be developed very quickly, and proved cheap to make and mass produce. Innovations in vaccine technology bring the prospect of eliminating some of the ancient scourges of humankind, and give humanity the edge in rapidly responding to new threats that come along.

Another reason for optimism is genetic modification, which now allows us to speed up the selective breeding of plants that has gone on since the dawn of agriculture itself:

Humans have done genetic modification for centuries. Our distant, and in some cases, recent, ancestors turned Brassica oleracea into cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, kale and the others. They turned wild wolves into domestic dogs. We have modified animals, vegetables and fruits to do what we want them to do.

So now — and particularly vital for the world’s poorest:

We have modified crops to give higher yields, to be saline tolerant or drought resistant. In some cases we have made them self-fertilizing, in others insect repellant...Already there is “golden” rice modified to incorporate vitamin A so that children in poor countries can be more protected from malnutrition and blindness. The use of plants as drug factories is well established, with even GM tobacco plants used to produce antibodies against Ebola, but the prospects are literally limitless.

Another joyful thing to look forward to is that a hologram of nonagenarian blob Sir David Attenborough will soon pop up on our mobile phones in order to advertise 5G. That prospect is anything but fun, of course; it’s what follows. Have you ever thrown a mobile phone at the wall? That is fun!
 

Anyway, back to work. These electrons don’t move themselves.

Feet on the ground — ASI Fellow Tim Ambler reminds us that there is a lot that science can’t solve, namely the Great British Bureaucracy, which has turned a vaccination programme into a vacillation programme:

Jonathan Van-Tam, deputy chief medical officer, said there was no shortage of the vaccines themselves but of the vials to put them in. When we ordered 100 million doses, it seems no one thought of the vials.

Oops. Meanwhile, ex-NHS staff who want to help out:

face 15 hours of online form filling before they can make the first jab. Matt Hancock agreed that wielding a hypodermic did not really require proof of diversity awareness or terrorism policy or many of the other 21 tests, but the mid-level NHS manager who appeared on the programme clearly disapproved, and, one suspects, would be in no hurry…

In the first wave, tomes of pettifogging regulation were thrown out. Isn’t it time to do the same now?

Meanwhile, the government seems determined to raise living costs for the poor. Yes, that’s right, says arch-blogger Tim Worstall. Due to disruptions during the covid scare, the cost of food and some other essentials have risen. But now, on the fantasy that it will reduce obesity, buy-one-get-one-free, three-for-two and other offers are to be banned, snatching better value food out of the mouths of poor families. Bizarrely:

The government is demanding that the poor be poorer. We can’t help but think that this isn’t a reasonable aim of government policy. Actually, we’d mutter that it’s somewhere along the spectrum from misguided through to an aggression upon the poor. But then as Bernard Levin spent those decades pointing out there’s little so dangerous as the Single Issue Fanatic. The groupthink about obesity is leading to this absurdity, that government is actively insisting upon taking the crusts out of the mouths of poor babes and children.

 

Bye,

e