Do & Don't

So the Conservative government relaxes virtually every law regarding the pandemic, yet Grant Shapps, Minister of State for Transport (and flags), is rolled out on the radio yesterday to say people should still wear masks. How's that for mixed messaging?

The only conclusion that can be gathered from this tour de force of ineptitude is that the government is abdicating all moral, ethical and practical responsibility so it can tell its different constituencies - the lunatic far right and the semi-reasonable centre - exactly what it wants to hear, despite the messages being diametrically opposed.

Where does this leave the owners of premises that don't want to cater for those who refuse to wear masks? They're providing a service and, without protection of the law, it's debatable whether they can insist on those without masks leaving their premises. It has overtones of the case where a devoutly Christian woman was taken to court for not serving a gay couple due to her beliefs. 

Retailers may be able to attempt to enforce their own face covering policies, but in the absence of a legal requirement, as has already been highlighted by the British Retail Consortium, this could result in further significant increases in abuse, threats and violence towards retail workers. London Transport has overcome the problem by changing its conditions of carriage, but that isn't a solution that's available to all and sundry.

As an aside, a friend of ours, who is double-vaxxed with AZ, tested positive yesterday and is waiting for a PCR test to confirm whether he has it or not.

As another aside, I found out yesterday possibly why Priti Patel is rather a handful - her dad, Sushil, was a failed Ukip council candidate, which explains a lot. It's also very possible, as the daughter of Ugandan Asians, that her family has a deep-seated dislike of people of Africans heritage because of what Idi Amin did to the Ugandan Asians. Her parents left Uganda before Amin started his persecution of Ugandan Asians, but there are bound to be family relatives who suffered at Amin's hands.