There are always some, aren’t there?

It would seem that – no doubt fuelled in part by the media’s constant thirst for news stories and general frustration at three weeks of lockdown – the number of UK Covidiots is gradually increasing.

See here for a vivid example, as reported by Colin Dury for – THE INDEPENDENT

Amidst the growing frenzy of “When is all this going to end – and how?” there is a difficult line to tread (and decisions to make) between straightforward general population health and safety, the practicalities of how long you can actually keep people locked down before they begin to lose their marbles in a democracy and, of course, how much damage you do to your economy – and indeed to businesses of every size and nature – by refusing to let them re-start.

There’s almost certainly a degree, in these circumstances, to which whatever you do is going to be wrong as far as some people and/or some interest groups are concerned.

Anyway, over to you, Boris.

Based upon my own experience in both business and life, there’s a certain irony in the fact that being in this situation need not necessarily be as pressurised or stressful as one might think.

Let me explain.

When you are faced with a difficult, complicated, far-reaching or controversial decision to make and, whatever your decision is will inevitably attract a hail of criticism, potentially from all sides – (my argument is that) the act of making the decision becomes relatively easier.

Why? Because it doesn’t actually matter what your decision is – the only thing that matters is that you make one.

It’s a bit like the anecdote I heard, set at a small lunch party in the House of Lords during the Labour Government of the 1970s when Denis Healey was Chancellor of the Exchequer and had to go to the IMF for a national bail-out.

One attendee at the lunch was holding forth at length, justifiably or not, about what an unintelligent and incompetent fool Healey was – going as far as suggesting that he should never have been appointed to any office of state, let alone this one.

At which point a somewhat laid-back peer sitting on the opposite side of the table took issue with the speaker.

The thrust of his line was that, when it came to difficult or complicated issues, there are a number of routes by which to arrive at the best decision in all the circumstances.

One of them was to begin by narrowing the options – e.g. identifying the bad or impractical decisions – and thereby hopefully leaving yourself with a smaller number of potentially viable or most practical ones from which to choose.

In this respect, arguably, Denis Healey was a most valuable member of Cabinet.

Because he was always wrong.

So, whenever a difficult decision came forward to be made, you could listen to what Healey’s recommendation was … and then, whatever else, made sure you didn’t do that.

It was as good a way to start as any other.

I could see the point he was making – a potentially valuable ‘stop off’ station on a journey down a metaphorical railway track towards knowing what to do in a difficult situation was, of course, knowing what not to do.

Returning to my subject of Covidiots, yesterday I had one specific instance yesterday.

A neighbour rang me up and asked me to witness and legal document for him.

I explained that, as a condition, I did not want him entering my house because of the lockdown situation – since it had been imposed, no third party had done so and I wasn’t going to change this rule anyone, let alone him.

He agreed to this.

Then, when he arrived and I opened my door, he strode in and effectively made himself at home, despite my attempts to keep the regulation two metres from him, explaining that I could quite happily view him signing his document, and therefore properly witness it, from the far side of the room.

He seemed to have zero of both self-awareness and my sensitivity on the matter.

After the deed was done, he even wanted to stay for a chat but I ushered him straight back to the door and out into the street.

And afterwards felt as if I’d been burgled or violated in some way.

How dare he?

Separately, later, out on my afternoon constitutional in the warm sunshine, I noticed far more traffic and cyclists on the roads than normal – and also more family groups walking the pavements, few of them apparently having any regard for social distancing.

I spent a good deal of my time leaping into the traffic, or down side alleys, in order to protect myself.

This could all get worse before it gets better.