Yesterday I asked my optician for some wise after the event glasses.

“I’m sorry”, he said, “but we have sold out. Usually they are only purchased by football pundits and pollsters after general elections, but since Covid-19 began there has been a huge demand.”

Seriously though, I am getting fed up with people who, benefitting from hindsight have all the answers, then tell the government what they should have done.

Sniping from the safety of TV studios, newspaper columns or opposition benches is easy when you know you will never have to take responsibility for your actions.

Of course mistakes have been made but not having any precedent to learn from, decisions could only be made using what information was available at that time.

Technology allows us to see how the rest of the world has dealt with the pandemic.

Measures to contain the virus varied widely from country to country. China implemented what was the largest quarantine in human history. Sweden took a relaxed approach, while Spain and Italy imposed draconian measures.

As time went on lockdown rules and curfews were constantly revised. Ah, but New Zealand successfully stopped a major epidemic, many will cry.

Let’s get real, if a country with a population of five million, (half of that of London), sparsely scattered over two islands, with just two major airports and surrounded with treacherous seas cannot contain a virus then no one can.

From the constant harping by the media, it is obvious that whatever the government does it will either be too little or too much, too soon or too late, so let’s cut the Prime Minister some slack and give him some support.

Running the country is never easy at the best of times, but during a pandemic it is nigh on impossible.

D Walker