We should all harness the spirit of Ryan the plumber

When it comes to the latest Government guidelines on the (very) gradual lifting of lockdown, it seems people fall into one of two camps.

You’re either a Pooja from Solihull, or a Ryan from Surrey. Pooja Jalota is the pharmacist who on Monday, in deeply censorious tones, accused Boris Johnson of being ‘too vague’ and leaving the nation with ‘more questions than answers’ during a public press conference.

Ryan Price is a plumber who, by contrast, thinks he has a fairly clear grasp of what’s required. ‘It’s not really hard to understand,’ he told Channel 4 news. ‘Be sensible in what you’re doing and stay away — two metres apart when you can — wear your PPE if you’re at work. I’m not sure, what do you want? A full handbook to tell you what to do?’

Like all good tradesmen, Ryan knows that sometimes you just have to make the best of what you’re given. Use your common sense a bit, like. he also knows how to read a set of instructions — and quite honestly these don’t seem that complicated to him.

ToGetheR Pooja and Ryan exemplify the new divide across the nation, one that over the past few dark and difficult months has come to replace the rift over Brexit — and which is just as bitter and every bit as polarising.

It is between those who believe the Government is at best incompetent, at worst criminally negligent; and those who think the response to Covid-19 has not been perfect, but also recognise that ministers and civil servants are doing their best in extremely challenging circumstances.

Between those who see the pandemic not so much as a terrible human tragedy, but as a political point-scoring opportunity, thinly disguised beneath the veil of accountability; and those who understand that this virus is bigger than any one party or ideology, something that concerns all of us as a species — and which we must work together to overcome.

While that latter view seemed to be very much the spirit at the start of this pandemic, it just doesn’t feel that way now. even though we are only a very short way into this process, legions are already lining up to pass judgment, at the same time shutting down and obscuring all useful debate, to the detriment of us all.

In particular the list of politicians seeking to gain ground at the expense of the crisis is growing, and they are just the tip of the iceberg. It is an unedifying spectacle; then again, I’ve been around in politics long enough to know to expect nothing less.

I’ve also been around long enough to know the British public are much more level-headed, pragmatic and better informed than people think. Like young Ryan in Surrey, they have a remarkable ability to cut through the crud.

And when it comes to managing their day-to-day lives for the foreseeable future, they don’t need — or frankly want — to be treated as mindless drones, or spoon-fed like little children. they don’t, as Ryan said, require a manual.

So forget the whingeing, whining armies of the professionally offended and oh-so-very-pleased-with-themselves. It’s the Ryans of this world who are going to keep this country going throughout this crisis and out the other side.

Who will, with measured amounts of carefully managed risk and a whole lot of common sense, slowly but steadily get the economy running again.

Pooja or Ryan, the choice is yours. I know whose side I’m on.