Observations on the use of face masks, a return to 'normal', and Boris

This is entirely anecdotal but based on personal experience I can report that:

On Tuesday, the day after ‘Freedom Day’, approximately one in five visitors to a motorway service station on the M6 were no longer wearing face masks indoors.

Those not wearing masks were from every age group, including the elderly.

On Wednesday, when stopping at another services (this time on the M11 in Essex), the number of face mask/non-face mask users was evenly split (50:50).

Yesterday, within the enclosed shopping mall at Cabot Square, Canary Wharf, almost no-one was wearing a mask, and the same was true inside the boutique shops and cafes.

Not only did this feel completely normal, everyone - including the mask wearers - seemed perfectly relaxed with the situation.

I don’t know what they were thinking of course but I didn’t see anyone give a non-mask wearer a wide body swerve.

Nor did I sense any tut-tutting behind the masks or, worse, fear. What I took home was an over-riding feeling of tolerance. Wear a mask, don’t wear a mask, it’s your choice.

Social distancing was still being observed though and that can’t be a bad thing. In normal times it would be called 'respecting someone's personal space' and I'm all for that.

The one location (in this very limited observational study) where the use of face masks was still being observed by 99 per cent of customers was my local branch of Waitrose. Go figure.

My own policy is to have a face mask in my pocket at all times and I will use it according to circumstances. Hopefully those moments will be increasingly rare because it does seem we are returning to ‘normality’, although for how long remains to be seen.

According to reports the easing of restrictions in Britain is being looked at by the rest of the world as some sort of social experiment that will either succeed and be copied internationally once vaccination rates are on a par with the UK, or will go horribly wrong.

Israel, the world leader in vaccinating its entire adult population, seems to have reintroduced some restrictions but I'm pleased that the UK government – for the moment at least – is demonstrating faith in the vaccines to significantly reduce the risk of serious illness or worse.

Either way - and despite the somewhat chaotic impact of the ‘pingdemic’ - I shall continue to give Boris and the Government the benefit of the doubt about its handling of the Covid pandemic.

Many people have accused ministers and their advisors of making up and often reversing policy as they go along, but what do they expect in the face of an unprecedented (in modern times) situation?

Every Covid-related policy is effectively an experiment because there is no guaranteed outcome so cut the Government (especially Boris!) some slack!

PS. Lovely article by friend of Forest Tom Utley in today's Daily Mail – PM's touching letter to our old colleague that shows Boris the buffoon is a better man than me.

It acknowledges Boris's failings (like Tom I too wish he had a few more of Mrs Thatcher's attributes) but the article also highlights some of the PM's good characteristics, not to mention the many things that are currently on his plate that would stretch even the very best statesmen and politicians.

Credit to Tom for swimming against the tide of media opinion because very few journalists are willing to stand up for Boris at present.

Time will tell but in my view he needs to be given at least a full parliament plus the opportunity to fight another election before people can make a fair and proper judgement about his time in office.

As an aside, I have rather given up reading the Mail on a daily basis because I am fed up reading the paper's remorseless criticism of Boris.

Tom Utley's article aside, I don't know why the paper has such animus towards the PM but as someone who previously read the Mail every day for 50 years it hasn't gone unnoticed.

Whether I ever return as a regular reader remains to be seen but under the current editor possibly not.