This afternoon in the House, Health Secretary Sajid Javid announced that community transmission of the new Omicron variant has taken hold in England. So far, this version seems to be relatively mild, which leads us to wonder why, instead of trying to suppress infection from Omicron, why aren’t we holding Omicron parties?

And speaking of parties, James and Toby also question the government’s new policies to crack down on drugs at the same time The Sunday Times is reporting about traces of cocaine turning up in Parliament.

First up this week is a bevy of Covid stories including David Starkey’s assertion that vaccines should be compulsory; the new head of NHS England’s misleading claim that there are currently 14 times as many Covid patients in hospital as there were this time last year (when, in fact, there are fewer) and former Health Minister Matt “I Snogged at the Office” Hancock’s Telegraph comment piece saying the case for insisting all health workers are vaccinated is “unanswerable.”

We also talk about the ‘unholy trinity’ of moral causes – Covid, Climate and Social Justice – being used by governments to exert more and more control over their populations and before Culture Corner we find out why our producer never seems to get a reply to his emails to James.