Protecting the NHS is all well and good – but what about the rest of us?

Among the muddled messages coming out of the Johnson government is a concern that we may be facing a second wave of coronavirus infections as we go into the winter. Yet again, it appears that the target will be to “protect the NHS”.

There is never any suggestion that the purpose of government is to protect the people of the UK. The only concern of the Johnson cabal is to avoid the embarrassment of the health system getting overwhelmed and the attendant publicity that this would attract. So long as these tragic deaths remain out of sight and we are not confronted with bodies in the streets, it would seem that the government is content to treat them as collateral damage.

When is the media going to confront Johnson and his confederates over their priorities?

Neil Mander Devon

Common sense

I appreciate that everybody wants to blame governmental communications for the current travel problems. But if people have been continually warned to keep a safe distance from others, what has made them think that a holiday abroad was going to be somehow sacrosanct?

Cole Davis Norwich

Tiny violins

I’m afraid my heart doesn’t bleed for people who, having acquired a beautiful tan on holiday in Spain, now find themselves unable to show it off to friends because they have to self-isolate for two weeks so that a further spread of the Covid virus might be prevented. Fourteen days will pass comparatively quickly; just ask those of us who have been shielded for more than 130 days. Consider also the nearly 50,000 people who have died in this country alone, and the countless more who grieve for them.

It should have been obvious that almost unrestricted foreign travel would open the way for further infection. I think the government, for the first time in this crisis, has acted both swiftly and decisively. And that’s a statement I certainly didn’t expect to make.

Rosemary Mathew Cambridge