As the so-called ‘rule of six’ is introduced, the Government can no longer claim to be following the science. There is no ‘science’ that says six is the maximum number of people we can meet socially, but we can meet any number at work or school.

Unlike our government, we will not be able to break this law in a ‘specific and limited way’.

It is the latest in a blizzard of rules, regulations, guidance and laws brought in by an incompetent government that is out of its depth, and it is beyond time that they were all scrapped.

In an act of the most rank hypocrisy, we have Matt Hancock telling us that we must follow this new law or risk ‘killing a granny’.

It was Matt Hancock who effectively slaughtered thousands of grannies by booting sick, elderly people out of hospitals and into care homes, where they and their fellow inmates (for that is what they have become, denied visits from relatives and loved ones) went on to die without medical care.

We know who is likely to be vulnerable to this virus. We are surely able to put protections and support in place for those who require it, and allow the rest of society to try to pick up the pieces of our shattered lives and get back to normal.

By criminalising people for socialising, especially the young and healthy, we prevent all of us reaching the state of community immunity to this virus which will ultimately be the best means to protect the very people Matt Hancock claims to care about.

Emma Telford

Hereford