This government is inept. There, I’ve said it. Like kicking a dog or taking candy from a baby, no-one likes a smart Alec but I can hold my tongue no longer. Thankfully, you don’t have to take it just from me and the usual-suspects of Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner, as there’s a whole raft of Tory backbenchers, supporters and right-wing media pundits, from Piers Morgan to the FT, queuing up to voice their own similarly withering opinions.

Hold the front page, exciting news: this winter will be terrible! Remember where you heard it first that during this Solstice season we will be dealing not only with flu and Covid-19, but mass unemployment, increased immigration via The Channel, the collapse of test & trace, the signing of a free trade deal to replace the EU with, not only Trinidad but thankfully also Tobago, food shortages, a hard-border in Ireland, an international reputation in tatters, oh, and flooding.

I finally went to the pub t’other week for the first time in five months and I am delighted to report that a thoroughly enjoyable experience it was too. However, I have to admit it was not without a little anxiety as, on the face of it, the majority of Joe Public appears to have fallen into one of two groups: either they are chomping at the proverbial bit because civil liberties have been impinged, or they can’t believe pubs have been reopened and it’s all going to end in tears.

Before upending himself on that cleverly disguised exam-graded banana skin, permanently-hard-done-by Education Secretary, Gaff Williamson, surreptitiously announced that Tony Blair’s well-intentioned social-mobility inspired target of 50% university attendance, would be unceremoniously dropped. And not a moment too soon.

When I began putting my thoughts down for this missive, a quote from the writer Harper Lee came to mind: “You can choose your friends, but not your family.” Nothing could be more true, both at home and especially at work and I’m pretty certain The Don must be rueing the day he alienated both these camps.

Would you choose the fish taco starter over the roasted butternut squash, or chicken liver pate instead of cauliflower soup, if you knew the different calorific content of the particular choices? Seventeen-and-a-half stone Boris Johnson certainly seems to believe so as calorie-labelling on the menus of restaurants and takeaways is the cornerstone of his all-new twelve week attack-strategy on the nation’s weight problem.

I’ve mentioned previously that I do like the cut of Keir Starmer’s jib: neat, trimmed, precise, perfunctory, measured. It’s patently obvious this is how Sir Kier likes it to be and a very definite style has emerged since he assumed leadership of the Labour party. He undertakes all tasks, from asking detailed queries of Bumble Boris at Prime Minister’s Questions to the sacking of Rebecca Long Bailey, with the minimum of fuss. Short, sharp and to the point. All good and undoubtedly an impressive start but is it enough?

This is going to surprise you. Last year the government did a beautiful thing and they did it for all the right reasons. Eschewing a barrow-full of tax receipts for the Chancellor’s coffers, they surprised everyone concerned, myself included, in reducing the fixed-odds-betting-terminal (FOBT) gambling stake from a maximum of one hundred pounds a spin to a relatively meagre two-quid.

For months now the debate has raged over whether Sweden was right to avoid the strict pandemic lockdown restrictions implemented by most other European governments, including our own. Now, with each country’s Eurovision scoring in and counted, does Sweden’s unique approach to coronavirus represent a shining example for the rest of the world or a cautionary tale?