'We don’t need to be told how to live during coronavirus pandemic'

Respiratory infections will spread through the community, through institutions and workplaces unless everything is closed down and we go into solitary confinement.

Politicians and many so-called experts stumble from one expedient to another in an attempt to limit social contacts without fully trashing the economy. That is plainly impossible.

Added to that the intrusion into private life has reached Orwellian levels. In Nineteen Eighty Four the hero, Winston Smith, is arrested and subjected to Room 101 because of a sexual encounter unauthorised by the Party. It is likely that persons unable to pay excessive fines will be subjected to harsh imprisonment.

Personally I am trying to avoid social encounters outside or within the home. But I do not need any advice or diktat from the Government on how to live my life.

DENIS GARNE

Herongate, Shoeburyness

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