A letter from the editor: Mea Culpa

DEAR Reader,

I regret to inform you that I am considering my position at Idle Thoughts on London Walks after it was revealed I had an old mate over for a morning coffee this week in violation of the government’s strict social-distancing measures.

It is little defence that, unlike at the now infamous tryst between Professor “Lockdown”, Neil Ferguson, and his married lover, there was no touching.

At this time of national crisis, it is vital that we influential thought-leaders, as much as boffins like Ferguson, should avoid the charge of hypocrisy.

The prof has now fallen on his sword, quitting his role on the government’s SAGE committee, presumably in order to spend more time with someone else’s family.

The Daily Telegraph which broke the story sealed Ferguson’s fate when it revealed that the woman in question was a left-wing activist who lives in a £1.9 million house.

It is fair to say that The Telegraph has not been the biggest fan of lockdown, even though many of its aged readership already live in permanent self-isolation.

Ditto at The Sun, which opined that Ferguson’s “bombshell” research predicting that deaths could overwhelm the NHS was a “hammer blow” to the government’s initial hopes of building “herd immunity”.

None of this absolves me of my crime of taking pity on a frail, pensioner friend as he passed my home this week. Unlike Ferguson’s paramour, the only modest comfort I could offer was a hot drink (milk, no sugar).

But who will cast the first stone? How many of YOU have broken the rules, perhaps ignoring the six-foot requirement at the supermarket to grab the last packet of pasta, or illegally sitting down on a park bench?

So, watch this space. As I contemplate my future, I may resolve to just hang my head in shame as I continue to fulfill the critical function of this column.

The Editor