Labyrinthine rules

LEAVING your home without good reason is unlawful – and now it seems even having a coffee with a friend is forbidden.

Professor Jason Leitch has counselled against these outdoor meetings, deeming it too risky as the Covid death toll rises.

While public health chiefs are right to be cautious, this latest crackdown will fuel confusion over labyrinthine rules and regulations.

It’s entirely legal for one member of a household to meet one other person outside. But it seems that Professor Leitch advocates an even stricter approach. Even sitting on a park bench has been ruled out for anyone other than the elderly.

So many of our personal freedoms have been stripped away that outdoor walks with friends, with or without takeaway coffee, are one of our few remaining pleasures – combining exercise with social interaction.

These additional measures are certainly well intended, but they could undermine morale at a critical moment in the battle against the virus.

Takeaway coffee and food have become vital for small businesses fighting for survival in the midst of an economic crisis.

Now even this source of much-needed income is under threat, and yet if social distancing is observed it’s hard to see why an outdoor rendezvous with friends should pose such a grave threat to public health.

Isn’t it about time that ministers and their advisers spent a little less time on this kind of forensic micro-management of our daily lives?

While they draw up detailed guidance on coffee consumption in parks, parents, pupils and teachers are grappling with a massive software failure that has made online learning impossible for many.

Instead they need to step up the vaccination campaign, help businesses to stay afloat – and plan for economic recovery.