Rules won’t call time on Covid

THE Government insists it is being led by the scientists over Covid-19. But what makes pubs safer before 10pm?

Don’t get me wrong – I realise we have to take action to defeat this pandemic.

I just wish we had a government that displayed some leadership, rather than one that has no clear or meaningful strategy in place.

Playing ping-pong with our lives and livelihoods is unacceptable.

The sad thing is we knew before the election that Johnson had a reputation for avoiding hard work and passing the buck.

He’s still doing it.

I just hope that voters are able to see through all his bluff and bluster by the time the next general election is upon us.

Mick Waites, Portsmouth

Sadly, the comment from care worker Lakeshia Matthews-Clarke that pubs should stay open longer sums up the irresponsible attitude of many young people her age (Mirror, Sept 23).

At 22 and as a care worker she should know only too well the impact of Covid-19.

But it seems many of this age group have no social conscience and expect everything to be geared around their desires.

I regularly see large groups of youngsters not even making a pretence of social distancing.

Is it any wonder that Covid is multiplying? Roger Worner, Bristol

The latest piffle from Boris de Pfeffel Johnson shows he’s out of his depth. It

appears he couldn’t understand that telling people to return to work and eat out would be a disaster without a functioning test and tracing system.

Now he is backtracking, but not far enough. Closing pubs and restaurants at 10pm won’t help and there is too much confusion as to who can visit who.

For instance, I can’t visit my son at his home because he is in a family of six – but I can meet them at a separate table at a restaurant.

Until we have a leader who can be clear and concise, we won’t get to grips with this virus, even in six months.

Victor Laidlaw

St Leonards-on-Sea

East Sussex

As usual, the measures imposed by blustering Boris and his inept advisers to combat the upsurge in Covid- 19 infections are totally inadequate. Pubs can open at noon allowing customers 10 hours of drinking time before staggering

away, oblivious to the need to keep socially distancing.

These measures are more about the economy than saving lives. The economy will always recover given time. Dead people will not.

Sam Morgan, Barnsley

I am a former publican of more than 30 years. If Boris had asked experienced licencees for advice they would have told him that on Sundays when pubs opened later in the evenings but still closed early, they were twice as busy than any other day of the week.

Shortening the hours will have the result of more people going to pubs, not less.

Roger Renton, ex-licencee

How come this Government believes closing pubs an hour earlier when most people are at home anyway might make a difference to the spread of coronavirus, while allowing them to stay open for the rest of the day when they may be much busier?

Stefan Badham, Portsmouth