And when will Boris Johnson – once a great libertarian – stand up to the discredited boffins Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance by refusing to curb our basic freedoms any further for measures that simply will not work?

The World Health Organisation's special envoy on Covid-19 last week warned there is only one result that comes from locking down entire populations – and it's certainly not eradicating the disease. David Nabarro said: "Lockdowns just have one consequence that you must never ever belittle, and that is making poor people an awful lot poorer."

That poverty is coming to the UK – and fast. The Centre for Economics and Business Research today predicts almost three million folk will be unemployed by Christmas.