Apparently, Mr Whitty urged people not to do “stupid things” at Christmas. I suppose the obvious response to this would be to abandon any plans you have to invest in agriculture and food production!

But now the official guidance from the civil service is not to hug granny. Granny might be glad of this, I don’t know. But I was on the phone to one person and she remarked she had had no physical human contact for some months. She was contemplating a hair appointment and commented that she wasn’t sure she could cope. It’s so long since anybody touched her she found the idea of being touched by a stranger disturbing. The damage this pandemic is doing to people will still be emerging in three or four years’ time.

But the big problem is the total inability of our civil service to cope. At the moment ministers are taking…