The Government must win people over to obey the unenforceable

sir – The willingness of the people to comply with instructions to stay at home has diminished, especially in the fine weather. Yet restrictions had been imposed with encouragement by the best medical and scientific minds.

To see people flouting them brings to mind a discussion by the judge Lord Moulton in 1912 of the domains of human action: positive law, free choice and, crucially, obedience to the unenforceable.

We should bear in mind his conclusion that the true measure of a nation’s greatness is “the extent to which the individuals composing the nation can be trusted to obey selfimposed law”. Alan Skennerton

Bracknell, Berkshire

sir – I know, as a retired prison-service manager, that being locked up for 23 hours in prison is rightly criticised. This is exactly what is asked of people living in small, urban high-rise flats. David Robinson

Poole, Dorset sir – We have been looking after an old lady living alone in a nearby flat. She is healthy, but in recent days has shown signs of giving up on life. Will she be listed as a coronavirus victim? Evan Llewellyn

London SW3

sir – Charles Moore (Comment, April 4) is completely wrong about the NHS.

First, in a remarkably short time, the NHS has freed up 33,000 of its own hospital beds for coronavirus patients.

And contrary to Mr Moore’s claims, the NHS itself led, designed and created the new Nightingale Hospital in London in under a fortnight, with welcome support from its civilian contractors and the military.

Secondly, rather than rejecting public-private partnership, NHS England rapidly secured the biggest collaboration with private hospitals in the history of the health service.

Thirdly, almost all other European countries, including Germany and France, have introduced temporary lockdowns, despite each having very different health systems. So the reason for these measures is patently not because of some unique shortcoming in our own NHS. It’s because reducing contact between people means fewer people get the virus and die. Lord Darzi of Denham

Professor of Surgery Imperial College, London

sir – Pharmacists are concerned by greatly increased footfall in their shops. NHS England could ease this at the stroke of a pen.

Before this pandemic, doctors were told to reduce repeat prescriptions to one month’s supply instead of the previous two. The result doubled the visits patients make to the pharmacy. Stephen Wallis

Billericay, Essex

sir – It would be simple at the door of Boots, say, as people are let in one by one, to take a quick temperature reading remotely. Elizabeth Haynes

Lymington, Hampshire