Rats. You beat me to it

Thank you. That does make it clearer but also demonstrates how barmy it is.

It would have been more helpful if he had said the following:

“If it is much more effective for you to work from your place of work, and you can do so without coming closer than two metres from anyone, and you can get there without coming closer than two metres from anyone, then do so.”

Well as you’ve clearly not got much of a sense of humour, let’s try a more serious question. If two people can meet in a park as long as they stay two metres apart, presumably that covers chance meetings. But suppose a couple out for a walk have a chance meeting with someone they know. Must they walk on by and not be permitted to exchange pleasantries? The point really is that the ‘advice’ is so full of holes that it’s close to meaningless.

If, as I understand it, two people can meet in a park if they stay two metres apart, can three people do the same? And if there’s no park nearby, will a large garden do? I’ve enough room for a dozen in a circle on my front lawn - more if some sit in the middle. That’s a party if they bring booze. Is that allowed?

“The evidence shows that younger children are highly unlikely to suffer badly from the disease, nor does it appear very likely that they transmit to adults.” For every article saying that children are not effective carriers, I can find one that says they are. What is the truth about this?

That’s fine, Mr Johnson. But please don’t go on to conflate it with your government’s “success” at tackling Coronavirus

At least it’s grown in the UK nowadays. Wakefield, maybe.

While standing in for Mr Johnson, Dominic Raab also said we cannot go back to Business as usual with China. I agree with that on many fronts, particularly:
- opacity over Coronavirus;
- failure to stamp on trade in wildlife;
- the need to pull back from outsourced manufacture (and associated CO2,emissions);
- disdain for human rights (e.g. Uighur re-education camps).
(Of course, such sentiments should not be conflated with xenophobic comments about Chinese people, or UK residents of Chinese origin).

No 10 is also claiming that the coronavirus crisis strengthens the need for UK to be free of EU regulation after 2020, but the desire for separation flies in the face of the stark reality that crises such as pandemics and climate change cannot be solved through greater isolation.

Having said that, and even as someone who campaigned energetically to remain in the EU, the lessons of the Coronavirus pandemic create good arguments for different alliance blocs as well as moving away from our present model of globalisation.

The inevitable move to greater food self-sufficiency (not, I hope, at the expense of the natural environment) and the need for shorter supply chains could work alongside redrawn international alliances on a north-south basis. To some extent they are already there. North and South America have strong cultural and linguistic connections because of the Hispanic populations. They are also joined physically. China, much of the rest of Asia and Australasia are already closely linked for trade and, like it or not, China and India will be wanting Australian coal for a while yet. Russia is firmly entrenched with Syria and to some extent with Iran, and do we really want to keep trying for that impossible peace deal? Europe and Scandinavia are well connected but are dependent on fresh produce and seasonal labour from North Africa. We still have strong links with African members of the Commonwealth.

I’m not suggesting hermetically sealed silos, but future pandemics might be easier to contain, and north south trade is kinder on the environment than shipping goods from anywhere to anywhere, - more so if rail infrastructure were improved. Vertical time differences between Northern and Southern Hemispheres are so small as to be Irrelevant. Dividing the world into north south chunks might also make it easier to resolve the poverty divide as the enlightened self-interest involved would be easier to understand if closer to home. Tourism could mirror such a trend. Personally, I’d much prefer a trip by train and short ferry hop to Morocco than a long haul flight to Bali.

Perhaps this should be the focus of our post-Brexit, post-pandemic trade strategy. The reliance on a UK-US trade deal previously assumed by many pro-Brexit enthusiasts was already running into sand (my farmer neighbours detest the idea). President Trump’s increasing volatility only weakens any remaining arguments for it. 

I will probably download it, but I am not unconcerned about abuse of privacy. Quite a few people I’ve talked to won’t use it. I wonder if there would be greater take-up if it had an independently verified self-destruct mechanism incorporated that would be triggered after a period of time?