British women could certainly be forgiven for following their lead. Statutory maternity pay is £156 a week, less than half the minimum wage. Nursery fees for children aged between 39 weeks and three years cost 65% of the average parent’s income, meaning many women are forced to choose between indebting themselves and dropping out of the workforce. And according to the ONS, mothers spend 77% more time than fathers looking after kids, and undertake 62% of the housework. That equates to £260 of work each week in unpaid domestic duties. So come on, fellow mums. Let’s down tools over Christmas – put our feet up with a mulled wine and let someone else take care of the last-minute shopping, the stuffing of stockings, and the supervision of “sugar-hyped children”. Maybe then people will realise how much “motherhood matters”.

A year ago today, “Britain was set to be locked down again for the fourth time”, says Fraser Nelson in The Daily Telegraph. The omicron variant was gaining ground, and the government advisory group Sage was predicting up to 6,000 deaths a day unless “interventions” were made. But when Rishi Sunak heard what was happening, he cut short a trip to California, flew home and threatened to resign as chancellor if lockdown was imposed. So the whole thing was called off, and Sage’s ominous forecasts never came to pass. The whole affair reveals a “massive flaw” in the government system: decisions are taken on unreliable science “with minimal scrutiny”.