And now for a new terror... making our own decisions

IT’S been nearly 11 weeks since we were told that what we had previously thought of as normal daily life was to be shut down. Most of the activities we enjoyed would be off the menu: restaurants, hairdressers, dinner parties, garden centres, multi-generational family gatherings, sport.

When Boris announced lockdown that evening of March 23, I remember being frightened. This was going to be horrific. But the fact is that for many of us – the luckier ones who have been able to leave our homes from time to time and who haven’t suffered the loss of someone close – it has been perfectly bearable. Even, whisper who dare, slightly enjoyable.

Yes, it’s been mind- numbingly dull on occasions when all you have to look forward to is deciding what to cook for dinner. It’s been challenging to spend acres of time only with people in the same household, unleavened by the physical company of others.

It’s certainly been hugely demanding on couples who have been having to home school while both have also been working full- time from home. And it’s been occasionally anxiety-inducing when we poke our noses outside our immediate picket fences and imagine what might be out there when we emerge into a full-on recession with the virus still lurking.

But I believe there’s also a Stockholm syndrome mentality gaining hold – the condition where hostages form an attachment to their captors, and feel safer in their company than when free.

They stop wanting to be released. And as the lockdown levers are shifted allowing us more freedom, a huge number of people are feeling something similar.

The initial lock down rules absolved us from responsibility. We were told what we had to do –