Rule-breakers brought about latest lockdown

SO here we are, at the scheduled halfway point of this second England lockdown. When we come out of it, what will happen? Will we act differently or go along exactly as when we were last let out and invite a third one?

This lockdown would not had been needed if only the population as a whole had followed the rules.

Unfortunately a mix of lack of discipline, lack of self-discipline, selfishness, laziness and stupidity got the better of enough people to generate further Covid infections.

We can’t do much about anyone else’s selfishness; you either care about other members of society or you don’t. Sadly, too many people don’t.

Avoiding laziness doesn’t just mean remembering to wash your hands and put on your mask.

Your paper quoted a vox pop as saying that they didn’t understand the Tier 2 rules within a couple of days of your publishing such a clear exposition of them, that I nearly wrote to congratulate you on it – and there were plenty of other sources, too.

Laziness includes not bothering to find out what the rules are. Maybe we shouldn’t expect more from those whose attention span doesn’t stretch beyond two lines of Instagram, but why do we listen to such vox pops without reply?

Nor can we do too much about the lunatic fringe, like a friend of mine and a neighbour, both of whom say ‘Covid doesn’t exist’, or ‘it’s only like flu’. Perhaps they should be invited into the Covid wards at Royal Derby.

Self-discipline is hard to find, especially among the young where peer pressure is exacerbated by social media. I empathise and maybe all we can do is encourage those we are in touch with to look at the facts and make up their own mind.

I have been most surprised at failings in what one would expect to be disciplined environments. In my own gym, a class of 15 or so ladies, aged 30 to 60, were waiting outside their studio as close to each other as the young nighttime revellers we see pictured in the press, with their instructor not prompting social distancing.

In my hairdresser’s gym, if you don’t wipe down equipment before and after use you are asked to leave.

So the question is, to avoid future lockdowns, should we become a nation of snitchers and enforce some discipline and common sense where currently there is precious little?

Howard Thomas, Holbrook