DAN WOOTTON: The health establishment is determined to terrify and baby us

Shuttered businesses, kids ordered to stay away from school, operations cancelled, job centres closed, public transport services wiped out, eco fear porn exploding across the BBC and government officials casually warning ‘thousands will die’.

Not Armageddon; not even a relatively mild virus this time.

Nope, the UK is grinding to a halt, with the tacit permission of those in power, because of two-days of temperatures many parts of the world must deal with on a weekly basis.

Now I dislike the extreme heat as much as the next big guy, especially given the reluctance from British businesses, workplaces, taxi drivers and eco zealot officials to embrace air conditioning, a standard luxury in much of the western world.

But what I hate even more is the health establishment determined to baby and terrify us thanks to their unhealthy obsession with power and control.

Festishising fear is now the norm – brilliant for TV ratings but appalling for a nation seemingly so ready to retreat into our homes and leave the hard work to others.

One of the worst offenders has been Tracy Nicholls, chief executive of the College of Paramedics, who warned yesterday: ‘This isn’t like a lovely hot day where we can put on a bit of sunscreen, go out and enjoy a swim and a meal outside. This is serious heat that could actually, ultimately, end in people’s deaths because it is so ferocious. We’re just not set up for that sort of heat in this country.’

What utter irresponsible alarmism.

For the vast majority of us, this IS a lovely hot day where we can put on a bit of sunscreen, go out and enjoy a swim and a meal outside just like we do while on a European summer holiday with absolutely no consequences to our health – and certainly without dropping dead.

There’s also the Met Office insisting that ‘in general’ it would be better to stay indoors, somewhat overstepping their traditional job of providing the temperature and weather conditions then letting us decide how to live.

So what I felt was needed was a bit of Churchill-like swashbuckling motivation from our Conservative political leaders to encourage the great British working spirit in the 99 per cent of us able to cope with the heat to keep the country open.

Instead, I got Cabinet minister Kit Malthouse sent out to suggest this week ‘may be a moment to work from home’.

There we have it: Stay at Home!

Of course! I knew it!

I mean, it’s the answer to every sort of minor crisis these days.

When the hell are we going to grow up and learn? It’s staying at home that has damned us to our current predicament of a cost-of-living crisis, soaring taxes and millions who don’t fancy getting a job.

Sunseekers on Bournemouth Beach today. The Met Office has said ‘in general’ it would be ‘better to stay indoors’ 

Think about the consequences to the genuinely vulnerable of that advice in the midst of record temperatures, too.

If we were all to stay indoors, then who is available to protect those in need – to deliver their food, to care for them at the doctor’s surgery, to clean their homes and make sure they’re coping?

Just like with Covid, we’ve got the balance all wrong.

The young and the healthy should go about their business as usual, albeit being hot and sweaty, while focussing on protecting the old and vulnerable at genuine risk.

Instead, parents fuss around their lazy teenagers who moan it’s too hot to go to school.

Woke bosses accept lame excuses from staff members who can’t be bothered to come into the air conditioned office but are more than happy to ‘work’ from the park or the beach.

And the broadcast media trumpets increasingly extreme eco-proposals from activists, which would bankrupt Britain overnight, without the slightest hint at pushback.

Like the grim-faced Sly News reporter who allowed Chloe Brimicombe – a heatwave PhD researcher just out of nappies – to insist working hours must be cut and air conditioning legislated against if we’re to survive the summer, without the slightest hint of a challenge.

As outraged NHS GP Renee Hoenderkamp tweeted about TV’s irresponsible rolling coverage: ‘I don’t watch TV normally but in hospital today and turned on BBC News and what a mistake. It is wall to wall weather hysteria – correspondents all over the place in parks and even Battersea Dogs home advising on paddling pools for dogs. We have officially gone mad!’

A grass fire in Newgale, Pembrokeshire. There were several similar blazes across the country today 

The Beeb keeps banging on about how this is the first time a red heat warning has been issued for parts of the UK, while failing to mention the warning system was only introduced last year.

They also neglect to remind us of the 1976 summer heatwave when London experienced 16 consecutive days of temperatures over 30 degrees.

I’m also fed up with every minor public official thinking it’s their duty to take me back to primary school and insist I drink lots of water, use sunscreen and avoid all sunshine.

They also tend to suggest we should speak to our GPs if we have any concerns. Ha! Fat chance of that. Do they not understand the lockdowns killed off visits to the local doctor’s surgery at short notice in the UK, seemingly forever more?

Of course, the same bright sparks in charge of our response to this heatwave also banned fans in care homes and for nurses in hospitals, while encouraging folk to wear face nappies outdoors in the middle of summer, so forgive me for having little faith in any of their advice.

All this heatwave has convinced me of is that British authorities are currently devoid of the concept of personal responsibility and empowerment, something that has to return and fast.

The government must start to understand if people are continually told to stay at home at the slightest hint of a challenge, even if that challenge is a 40-degree day, then our work ethic and ability to run the country efficiently will be stamped out for a generation.