Shopkeepers must take a tough line

A lot of shopkeepers and other business owners are being harassed by people who refuse to accept the rules on wearing a face mask when they enter premises.

This is shocking as the consequences could be death for the staff or other customers or any of their relatives or contacts.

These “refusemasks” are probably the same people who if injured at work, are the first on the phone to a lawyer to get themselves compensation. One has to ask how they intend paying back the relatives of those who lose their lives because of their refusal to act intelligently and wear a mask.

The shop keepers, for the safety of all of us, need to take a strong line. If a customer is stroppy about the issue they should call the police. There should be no arguing. In fact, a colleague at work once

told me his father’s golden rule in his business of running a repair garage was: “Never argue with an idiot, he will drag you down to his level and then defeat you with experience.” Clarity is of the essence.

There is an excellent page on Wikipedia on Aesop’s fables, which shows how both Eastern and Greek traditions of story-telling to illustrate points, including references to writings credited to Aesop’s contemporaries of Buddha and Aristotle, have contributed to the rich tapestry of debates we have in the modern world. Those who have followed Mr Barron’s letters in the Chronicle, including the recent confused one mixing his thoughts on evolution, geology, history and religion into a hot-potch of speculations, most of which have already been scotched by basic science, might find that Wikipedia page helpful. It shows how, setting out to tell a deliberately false story can be used to put over an idea that may be true, as opposed to the bible which is used to claim things are true, which are not, by setting out to tell a tale which it is claimed is true when it is demonstrably false, especially easy to show now we have modern scientific tools to clarify things. Nicholas Hales Bath