The BBC believes that it has a vital role to play in promoting well-informed public debate. And I for one wholeheartedly agree.

Which is why, as soon as possible, it should abolish Question Time.

At some distant point in its long history, Question Time may well have been a forum for reasoned discussion, but it has long since descended into a political version of The Jeremy Kyle Show: a headache-inducing slanging-match in which the audience is whipped into a froth of bellowing self-righteousness while guests demean themselves for attention.

As a result, it’s hard to hold out much hope for the special edition that is due to air next Thursday, February 3. Because that night, it’s inviting vaccine sceptics to join the studio audience – and share their arguments against Covid vaccination. Fiona Bruce, the presenter, says she thinks it’s “an important debate”.

Surely, however, the BBC would serve the “vaccine hesitant” far better by reserving this particular topic for documentaries, which can soberly separate fact from falsehood. A crimson-cheeked ding-dong on Question Time, by contrast, is unlikely to achieve much, beyond intensifying a conflict that is quite bitter enough already. It’s like trying to extinguish a chip-pan fire by chucking on a jerry can of petrol.

The BBC will no doubt argue that it’s providing “balance”, by ensuring that the voices of vaccine sceptics are “represented”. But it may be overestimating how many vaccine sceptics there actually are. The latest figures show that, in the UK, 90.8 per cent of people aged 12 and over have had at least one dose of Covid vaccine. So vaccine sceptics account for less than 10 per cent of the public.

This means that, according to polls carried out in the past two years by YouGov, they are outnumbered in this country by, for example, people who believe that the US government was involved in organising 9/11 (12 per cent), and people who believe that humans have made contact with aliens “and this fact has been deliberately hidden from the public” (20 per cent). Indeed, the proportion of British people yet to have a Covid vaccine is roughly the same as the proportion who believe the moon landings were faked (nine per cent).

In that light, the number of vaccine sceptics looks rather small. Not only that, but it has dramatically shrunk. Because in another poll, carried out the year before the pandemic, YouGov asked respondents whether they agreed with the statement that “Vaccines have harmful effects which are not being fully disclosed to the public”.

The proportion who agreed was 20 per cent. Evidently, then, at least half of those people have since changed their minds, and decided that vaccines aren’t so bad after all.

In any case, the remaining vaccine sceptics have already done a tremendous job of making their views heard. So there is surely no need for the BBC to help them.

Better red than dead

Rather than keep up these miserable rows about vaccines, what we need is a sensible compromise that will suit all parties. Which is why I propose the following.

Let’s drink more red wine.

Not only will it put us in a better mood. But, if reports are to be believed, it might actually do us good. Because, according to new research, drinking red wine may help to ward off Covid. Supposedly, people who drink more than five glasses of red a week were found to have a 17 per cent lower risk of catching the virus.

It sounds highly improbable. But I do hope it’s true. Not least because it would mean that we need never bring back vaccine passports. Instead, theatres, nightclubs and other venues could simply station a security guard on the door with several crates of claret. Before being permitted entry, each attendee would be required to down at least half a bottle.

For some venues, of course, this form of precaution may be prohibitively expensive. In which case, they can require attendees to drink their own red wine in advance. On arrival, they will be made to take a breathalyser test, to prove that they’re sufficiently drunk. Alternatively, the doorman can demand they stand on one leg and recite the alphabet backwards. If the attendee says, “Z, Y, X… er, nine?” and then falls over, they can come in.

At the very least, let us hope that the Prime Minister has read about this exciting breakthrough. It might just save his skin. Because now he can tell Sue Gray that when he and his Downing Street staff got together for cheese and wine during lockdown, they weren’t having a party. They were merely protecting themselves from Covid.