The Government should have more faith in the public’s common sense

SIR – It’s time to trust the common sense of the public and end this morale-sapping lockdown.

The Government should certainly stop deferring to “the science”, which simply means a highly risk-averse approach. In the past week we have also had the unedifying spectacle of politicians and scientists hiding behind each other. The former claim to be “following the science”, while the latter say these are “matters for politicians”.

Instead, the Government should find its political mojo, look at the wealth of international data on Covid-19 and take a more pragmatic view. This is vital if our country and its economy are to get moving again. Nicholas Dobson Doncaster, South Yorkshire

SIR – You report (May 24) the view of Professor Michael Levitt, a Nobel Prize winner, that the lockdown has been “a waste of time”.

It appears that his prediction of deaths in Britain has been significantly more accurate than that of Professor Neil Ferguson.

It cannot just sit there as an unresolved debate. Did the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies consider views such as his? Robert Smart Eastbourne, East Sussex

SIR – Regarding the question of whether lockdowns work, two months ago I was a sprightly 85-year-old, getting out and about and doing all my own food shopping.

I now rely upon the kindness of others. My neighbours are brilliant, bringing me cooked meals from time to time. I have my own garden, so compared to many I am in a comfortable position. However, I have become an old man. I need to see an optician, a dentist and a chropodist.

I keep busy, writing articles for local newsletters and reading my Telegraph from cover to cover. But all these activities are sedentary, and I now have to lever myself out of my chair if I have been sitting for any length of time. I hope that, when the lockdown is lifted, I will be able to get back to where I was at the end of February. Ray Pearce Castle Bromwich

SIR – Sensible distancing is a possibility, but keeping to a two-metre distance is not – especially in restaurants, hotels, sports stadiums, theatres and cinemas.

We need to drop all the government diktats and return to common sense. Only then will we get back to some form of “normal”. Duncan Rayner Sunningdale, Berkshire

SIR – The phrase, “all dressed up with nowhere to go”, springs to mind with the reopening of the retail market, in particular clothing.

Who wants a new outfit if there isn’t anywhere to wear it, apart from outside a restaurant while waiting for a takeaway? Owain Price Llandygwydd, Cardiganshire