The folly of a Covid strategy that seeks to eliminate risk altogether

sir – We have been promised more restrictions from next Monday, with the possible closure of pubs and restaurants (report, October 8).

I liken this approach to the steady reduction of speed limits on our roads. The justification for this is that it will reduce accidents and deaths. However, if we pursue this logic, the limits will keep getting lower until they reach zero – eliminating accidents completely.

This is clearly ridiculous, as we understand that, in order to travel, we must accept a degree of risk. Such acceptance is absent from the Government’s Covid strategy.

John Smart Coventry, Warwickshire

sir – I run a small company based in Soho. My colleagues and I reopened our office 11 days ago and we’re not shutting it again. We can’t afford to.

Travelling into central London is a dismal experience. Shops are not just closed: they’re boarded up. Most restaurants are closed, and those that remain open provide half the usual tables. The few people on the Tube shy away from each other.

Whitehall should try walking the streets of their city. It’s frightening. They need to understand that those at risk have been taking the necessary precautions for months, while those who don’t care about the rules won’t have a change of heart now.

The rest of us – the vast majority – will continue to take all reasonable precautions to safeguard our loved ones. We don’t need curfews and endless, ever-changing expert advice. We know what to do. Let us do it and save our economy and society. Alisdair Low

Richmond, Surrey

sir – There are complaints that forcing pubs to shut at 10 pm will lead to widespread closures and job losses.

When I was a student in the Sixties and Seventies, pubs closed at 10.30 pm every day except Sunday, when they closed at 10 pm. Many were also shut for four or five hours in the afternoon. Yet everyone seemed to get their fill of drink, and pubs were profitable and vibrant places.

Only when Tony Blair’s government relaxed opening hours, thinking this would encourage a more “Continental” drinking culture, were folks allowed booze all day, with pub staffing levels (and costs) increased to cover these longer hours. Yet pubs have since been closing in record numbers, suggesting that the available drink-spend has been spread more thinly.

Perhaps more controlled hours would not only be good for our health but also better for the trade.

Terry Lloyd Derby

sir – If Boris Johnson wants to raise spirits, he should consider retaining British Summer Time, thus preventing the wave of gloom that descends on the country at the end of October.

This was tried in the late Sixties and early Seventies, with great success, but rejected due to objections in Scotland. P Blakey

Warwick