Matt Hancock is either a proposition to be believed or blatantly psychopathic – you must choose

The month was April 2020. No story appeared to be more heart-breaking in a sea of pandemic headlines than the tragic death of 13-year-old Covid patient Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab, forced to die alone in a London hospital due to the cruel and thoroughly inhumane pandemic measures.

It was on one of those tedious press briefings to which we all became hooked that, promising something would be done to ensure no such horror would be visited upon another family, then-Health Secretary Matthew Hancock (who signed the rules off incidentally) burst into tears.

Madness this week: Keir and Covid, sex bans, Phillip Schofield and Laurence Fox

    The insanity of the week commencing 12 October 2020.

Experts shouldn't be telling us how to run society – we need to use them more wisely

Let’s get one thing clear, I’m not an expert, thank God! That isn’t to say I’m particularly pleased not to be what traditionally passed for an expert – someone considered to be among the most knowledgeable on a subject.   I’m glad not to be a modern-day expert, namely someone who can apparently pronounce on new, evolving and unpredictable situations with such apparent precision that they can be deferred to as prophets of our times.

That’s exactly what the supposedly expert merchants of Covid doom do.

The case for lockdown falls apart more each day, but our leaders are in too deep to dig us out

Despite tragic mortality figures, Spain and Italy have not resisted the most gradual and tentative of easing in their national lockdowns. Yet the UK government continues to insist that the subject cannot even be discussed yet, apparently awaiting the passing of some kind of Coronavirus peak that will come and go at some point unknown.

Matt Hancock's prostate cancer pickle shows why genetic testing for the healthy must be approached with caution

When he announced in January that the NHS will offer a paid genetic sequencing service for healthy people in England, Health Secretary Matt Hancock must have known he was venturing into controversial territory. Only a couple of months later, Mr Hancock himself has unwittingly exposed the very real drawbacks and challenges that this presents.