Talk Radio across the UK, online, on DAB and on your smart speaker, the Independent Republic of Mike Graham, on Talk Radio.

Good morning and welcome to the Independent Republic of Mike Graham right here on Talk of Radio.

It is, of course, the world headquarters of common sense, but you did know that, didn't you? I've got one question for you all this

morning, and I want you to give it quite a lot of thought before you answer it, and before

you let me know what you think the answer to the question actually is. And here is the question,

what on earth are they up to? And you know when I say they, who I mean.

What are they doing?

What are they up to?

What's going on?

Yesterday afternoon, the health secretary, Sadji Javid, gave his first press conference to the nation in months, right?

And it was expected to be the first sign of a government preparing to put the country back into COVID restrictions.

Before he took to the podium in 10 Downing Street,

there was all kinds of rumours of lockdowns coming, you know, mask wearing being brought back,

social distancing being reintroduced, telling people to go work from home. But as the

hour-long briefing went on, it was clear that it was more of a warning shot and a

nudge than it was anything else. He said COVID cases could reach

100,000 a day. Maybe. He said with hospital admissions going back to 1,000 a day. Possibly. Just like last

January, he said the NHS was under huge pressure. His words, in short, it was the same old

massaging of the figures to frighten everyone into believing things will get worse if we don't change what we're doing.

The bottom line though was a plea for people to get booster jabs, which they're currently

not doing in very big numbers, and a suggestion that we should all wear masks to stop

the rise in infections. Quite how that is going to work. It's not actually very clear,

...