Should parents be fined for keeping children at home?
■ The government is wrong to threaten to fine parents who refuse to send their children back to school in September (Metro, Tue). Covid-19 has killed more than 43,000 in Britain and the pandemic is far from over.
Second waves are happening in cities such as Leicester and there will be no social distancing when schools return, so I don’t blame any parent who follows their instinct or uses common sense and chooses to keep their child safe at home.
The government should have been able to rely on the goodwill of the public that it had in March. But all that drained away when Dominic Cummings ignored the rules to ‘Stay Home, Protect The NHS, Save Lives’. People also haven’t forgotten that he also went for a day out to the Barnard Castle beauty spot (to test his eyesight). Things might have been better if the government’s trackand-trace app had been delivered on time. Bumbling Boris promised us a ‘world-class app’ but it’s unlikely we will have it this year.
The Tories took Britain into lockdown way too late, there was a lack of PPE and they allowed elderly hospital patients to be discharged into care homes without being tested. No wonder people have no confidence in the Tories. David Bodimeade, Essex
■ I’d like to thank Boris for his decision to implement ‘herd immunity’ with only tens of thousands of deaths more than the estimated 20,000. Ensuring there was a shortage of PPE from day one was a bold start, then returning elderly hospital patients to care homes was genius.
Lockdown proved a challenge given the public adhered to it. Opening a few shops and sending some children back to school early didn’t help. The promise of track and trace didn’t entice us back on the streets, either.
Then a stroke of luck – the weather turned hot. Let’s all go to the beach and have a pint! Even the virus cooperated and agreed to reduce its infection range from two metres to one metre. Praise is also due to those local authorities who have reintroduced parking and congestion charges to encourage us all to use public transport. However, I’d most like thank scientists, Not those working to produce a vaccine but those bringing us statistics. They managed to give real meaning to the phrase ‘lies, damned lies and statistics’. To this day, we don’t know how many people are infected or which crowded beach to visit to become infected.
Still, we now know the virus is optional. To claim your exemption, just click your heels together three times and say, ‘I wish I was at Barnard Castle.’ A Lert, Richmond
■ Dominic Cummings’ actions in April made no difference to my behaviour during the lockdown. Therefore it would be good if your readers could stop writing in about it and move on to some other way of bashing the Tories. Philip, Raynes Park
■ I’d like to say I agree with what Boris has done in Leicester, he just needs to make sure people abide by the rules and give the police more power. Instead of asking, we need to be telling people to behave. Wendy, Sheffield