Family re-union around phones and laptops

long term consequences for our civil liberties.

As most of us know, the police have been given greater powers to check our movements and have the power to detain those they see as not complying with rules on social distancing; mental health powers have increased – a person can now be sectioned by just one doctor and not two.

There will be a review of the

Bill in six months, depending on the crisis. I am concerned that after this emergency the bill and its powers will not be repealed in full.

Freedom and liberty is a precious and hard won thing; if we begin to lose these, it can be a long struggle to get them back. Linda Payne

Until this week I only knew of two definitions of zoom. One was what the lens on my camera does. And the other was an ice lolly from my childhood which resembled a rocket.

Since coronavirus arrived, I have been introduced to Zoom the app, which allows people to talk to others on the internet. There are alternatives such as Skype but Zoom, I am told, is becoming the method of choice.

The daughter-in-law instigated a family reunion so at noon on Sunday we gathered around our phones, iPads and laptops. With hindsight, the timing could have been better because none of us remembered the clocks had gone forward an hour. We are still waiting for my eldest Creature of the Night to join us.

However, we managed to overcame international time zones. From the sunkissed Isle of Sheppey

I was delighted to communicate with one branch of the family self-isolating in

Medway 15 miles away but on the ‘mainland’.

There was a sisterin-law speaking from

Barra off the coast of

Scotland and a niece who stayed up late to talk from Australia.

We hoped to contact another sister-in-law in the USA but it was a tad early for her.

We learned that, despite the marvels of modern technology, we didn’t have an awful lot to say except to ask each other about the toilet roll situation and the weather.

We are lucky no one we know has so far gone down with coronavirus but self-isolating is already creating a strain at Cobweb Castle.

By Saturday, Mrs Nurden had become so bored she went back to work. As a key worker, she is allowed. I have been banished from the office and now work from the sofa where I have discovered I can easily demolish a whole pack of monkey nuts on my own.

It is where I also keep in contact with colleagues via a video link. The other day Belle the cat became the star of the show after invading my two-metre space and gatecrashing the keyboard.

Yes, it was a catastrophe...

The KM Group columnist with his own look at the world