HOW fascinated they all are at the Covid Inquiry about who said precisely what and to whom back in 2020.
Never have all those lawyers and left-wing journos been as entertained as they have by No10 officials slagging off workmates with Anglo-Saxon abuse.
But when Michael Gove dares to speculate that Covid was cooked up in the Wuhan virus lab — a theory rather more credible now than the bats-in-the-wet-market fable — he is rapidly shut down.
That, apparently, is beyond the probe’s remit.
Worse, says the inquiry’s KC, it’s “divisive”. So what if it is?
Is this probe not remotely curious how the pandemic started?
If not, why not?
Is it genuinely seeking the truth of exactly what hit us, whether lockdowns were appropriate and whether we are prepared for a repeat?
Or is the allergy to “division” because they all wish to slavishly follow an agreed narrative — that the Tories were useless and 100 per cent to blame?
This inquiry’s conclusions are meant to be of huge national significance.
It is, however, a £200million farce.
TO most BBC staff the extremism of Guz Khan is entirely mainstream and normal.
Many of them also bandy about absurd exaggerations to condemn Israel while being less angry about Hamas savages butchering 1,200 Jews.
TikTok teenagers, who first heard the word “Palestine” on October 7 and now consider themselves experts, glibly claim Israel is engaged in “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” even though self-evidently neither is happening.
But that’s teenagers.
To hear such witless, damaging hyperbole from a 37-year-old man with a public profile is truly depressing.
At the BBC, though, he’s perfect to host Have I Got News For You.
Admittedly, this self-identifying comic will maintain consistency on a show which has not been funny this century.
But the BBC has disgraced itself already with anti-Israel bias — and even now will not bluntly call Hamas “terrorists”.
It cannot re-establish balance if blinkered hard-liners are picked as presenters.
WE doubt the Elgin Marbles are in voters’ top 1,000 priorities.
But since they have ignited another row between Britain and Greece we will say this:
These sculptures were obtained legally, with local approval, 200-plus years ago.
Our Parliament also gave the nod.
Vastly more people now see them at the British Museum than would do so if they were ever returned to Athens.
And what if museums were obliged to send all objects back to their countries of origin?
All international collections would be denuded or dismantled, culturally impoverishing the world.
Rishi Sunak is right to stand our ground.
