PETER HITCHENS: Has our mad mass house arrest during Covid-19 saved even a single life?

We will not escape from this misery until the Government has been forced to admit that it made a foolish mistake and over-reacted wildly to Covid-19.

The Prime Minister is like a man who sets fire to his own pyjamas, while he is wearing them, to cure himself of hiccups.

Now he stands naked and scorched, as his house burns around him, and exults that his hiccups have indeed gone away. This is what I mean by getting things out of proportion.

Above all, he must stop pretending that his actions saved us from deaths that never happened, and people must stop believing this evidence-free bilge.

Till that moment comes, months and perhaps years of costly, painful stupidity will follow. The belief that the Panic Policy worked means it can never fully end. If, and when, you go back to your job – if you still have a job – you will be compelled to abide by ludicrous, impractical rules. You will be forced to wear pointless muzzles on trains and buses.

Normal life will be virtually impossible. Previously simple actions will be endlessly complicated and expensive. And while this farce continues, businesses will continue to close and jobs continue to vanish, visiting misery and sickness on millions.

I have seen this before in the old Communist world, a mad, fixed idea pursued by dense men relentlessly and without opposition or thought, until the whole thing collapses or explodes. Now I see it here.