Britain’s through the loony Looking-Glass

‘IF I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. You see?’

That was the land of perverse, illogical behaviour that Alice sought before she slipped through the Looking-Glass.

Today, she might have felt as wildly disorientated in Covid Britain.

This country is renowned globally as a haven of sanity, sangfroid and common sense. Yet confronted by the pandemic, which for all but the most vulnerable groups poses no greater risk of dying than seasonal flu, we seem to have taken leave of all logic.

Take Rishi Sunak’s colossal hospitality bailout. Yes, this multi- billion- pound intervention aims to save countless businesses and jobs.

But pubs and restaurants are only on their knees due to the Government’s nonsensical and ruinous 10pm curfew and ban on different households mixing indoors.

And it’s madness that firms are permitted to re-employ recently sacked staff under the Chancellor’s scheme, which means that the taxpayer then contributes four days’ wages for just one day’s work.

If the lunacy began and ended there, fine. But no. Over-zealous police forces are stopping day-trippers crossing the border between England and Wales, which has imposed a hard lockdown. One might ask why officers aren’t so punctilious when responding to burglaries or robberies.

And Wales’s power-drunk Labour leader, who has coerced his people into house arrest and joblessness, has banned supermarkets from selling ‘non-essential’ items. But what exactly constitutes ‘nonessential’? An ironing board? A pot plant?

And how will this be enforced? By a battalion of tinpot trolley Nazis?

By his absurd actions, Mark Drakeford is driving shoppers into the arms of Amazon and other online retailers. Then, he’ll doubtless demand extra money from England when the stores are boarded up.

Sinisterly, millions of pedestrians are being spied on by the Government using traffic cameras to check they’re sticking to social distancing. The Stasi might blush!

Meanwhile, NHS hospitals are again cancelling life-changing operations to focus on coronavirus casualties – even though admissions from the disease are a fraction of the levels in April.

So this paper asks today: What kind of country have we become?

Ministers are imposing draconian restrictions to avoid a tsunami of cases even as the economy hovers close to oblivion. Voters, they argue, support such oppressive steps. But a Mail poll reveals the tide is rapidly turning.

The public no longer think tougher curbs will work and believe that it is time to get Britain back to normal.

No10, obsessed with focus groups, should take note. Yes, the ‘R’ number – measuring infection rates – has dropped. But the status quo is not sustainable.

For the country’s health, wealth and quality of life, common sense must overcome this pandemic of insanity.