If nobody is really enforcing the lockdown rules, then it’s no surprise so few people follow them

We are hearing of anger in the north of England because coronavirus restrictions are not working. No one seems to dare suggest that the restrictions are not working because so many people are not following them. If the rules were being followed, the science is well established that infection rates would go down.  

Enforcement is needed. But where are the enforcers? I have yet to see anyone being challenged although I constantly see simple rules like two-metre distancing, mask wearing and one way systems not being adhered to every time I go out. I have been on London tube trains where only half of passengers are wearing face masks but there is not a single Transport for London enforcement officer in sight on an hour’s journey. Why do people think it’s ok not to cover their nose as long as a mask is perched somewhere on their face? Do they not understand the simple principle of why mask wearing is needed?

If there were more enforcement officers “on the beat” there would probably be accusations of being Draconian, but the spread of disease would be halted in its tracks.

Anna Taylor

Sunbury-on-Thames

The British Medical Association is asking, among other suggestions, for it to be made compulsory to wear a mask outdoors when two-metre distancing is not possible. But no mention is made regarding indoor settings, particularly pubs and restaurants where one-metre distancing and no masks are the current rules. So do I detect an inconsistency? Or have I missed the science that shows alcohol fumes provide protection against Covid transmission?

Alan Pack

Canterbury

So former SNP MP and Covid rule breaker, Margaret Ferrier, who arguably has put lives at risk, insists she intends to continue to represent her constituents. What utter nonsense – she has zero credibility, certainly to comment on the burning issue of our times, Covid, nor on anything much else. If she opens her mouth again on the floor of the Commons, quite rightly, she'll be derided. I’d be amazed if the good folk of Rutherglen and Hamilton West still want her to represent them; I wouldn’t.  

Martin Redfern  

Melrose, Roxburghshire  

The government has rightly helped financially to keep public transport going. Why then, did they not support the self-contained commuter rail system in Liverpool?

Answers on a postcard please.

Doug Flack

Derby

The first rule of forecasting is to be conservative, the second is to modify the forecast when the facts change, and the third is to remember that modelling is not reality. The way the Covid-19 pandemic has been handled shows how little we have learned since “climate change” ceased to be a scientific discipline and became woke propaganda.

Lockdown hasn't worked: recorded infections continue to multiply long after the promised plateau should have been reached. Yet the Gotterdammerung of economic destruction is immensely attractive to the “got to do something” persuasion and lack of public trust increasingly results in people not complying with government "guidance".

Leaders in Taiwan, New Zealand, Sweden, Germany and South Korea communicate in clear, broadly honest ways. They treat their citizens as grown-ups whereas Brazil, America and the UK are awash with populist "world beating " exaggerations. Even in Scotland, a daily diet of "faux concern" is wrapped in a divisive, separatist doctrine.

John Cameron

St Andrews

I’ve just seen Trump on the news addressing a rally from the White House balcony, his followers parading below him, gazing up adoringly. All are wearing matching shirts of blue or red with matching red caps, all with outstretched arms holding phones to capture the moment their leader spoke. What with the outstretched right arm and matching uniforms I was put in mind of other rallies in earlier times; different colour shirts and a different continent maybe but with the same paramilitaries on the streets, and I shuddered.

John Simpson  

Ross on Wye