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What I objected to was the failure to lay off the Its the End of Civilization As We Know It nonsense. The Ladies Tea Party agreed. Here was the PMs opportunity to present Covid as a nasty disease which had tragically taken the lives of over 30,000 of our fellow citizens a bloody gash in the national psyche, no doubt - but which, in all honesty, poses little threat to most of the population who will either have it mildly or remain asympomatic. Boris could have broken the good news that, according to Oxford University, Coronavirus is no longer an epidemic in the UK. Yes, really. Just 0.24 per cent of adults - thats 136,000 people - currently have the virus. Transmission in the community is very low with most new cases coming from care homes and hospitals. He could have gone on to say that, while we must continue to shelter the most vulnerable and maintain sensible hygiene measures, it really is safe to go to work and to take the kids to school. Not just safe, but absolutely vital if we are to preserve jobs and spare the country an economic depression that will cause infinitely more suffering.

It would have taken moral courage to tell a frightened populace that their fears are out of all proportion to the actual risk and its time to start living again. Boris ducked it. This was not his Finest Hour, it was a disappointing thirteen minutes.

Generally, Im not too fussed whether its men or women who are taking the decisions so long as theyre highly competent. On Sunday night, I was acutely aware that no mother could possibly have been privy to the content of Boriss statement. It revealed a startling lack of emotional intelligence (EQ). If you tell 29 million viewers that they must go to work if you can, you dont have schools as an afterthought. Schools will have been foremost in the minds of all parents watching and wondering, How on earth can I go to work if the kids are still at home? The so-called quad - Sunak, Raab, Hancock, Gove seem to think of work purely as work, it isnt. Work is people. Do our leaders really not understand how people think or how they live? All I can say is you know that men are in charge when the golf clubs are open and the hairdressers closed.

Simon from Essex spoke for baffled parents everywhere when he asked a question of the PM at Mondays briefing. Were people like him allowed to use the schools that had stayed open for key workers? If not how do you propose these people return to work if theres no childcare available?

I think its only fair to regard that as an obvious barrier to their ability to return to work and Im sure employers will agree with that, answered the PM without answering at all.

Nor did he have a defence for the frankly laughable proposition that people will be able to see one parent out of doors, but not both. Natasha from Richmond asked How is it logical that I as a primary schoolteacher can mix with the many returning children but seeing my relatives is still not allowed?

Dont go expecting logic, here, love. Were living in the Age of Anti-Reason. So, under the new rules, people can see their boss, but they cant see their dad/grandchild/girlfriend? Trust me, that is going to infuriate pretty much everyone.

What happened is some pointy-head at SAGE did the maths and worked out that if an individual sees just one extra person outside their own household that will stop R (the reinfection rate) going up too much. What pointy-heads cant compute is that if you drive to, say, Nottingham from London to see your mum and dad, a non-pointy person is not going to just invite their mother out the front for a chat and then drive home again. Being human, and possessed of the full complement of unscientific feelings, they will end up seeing both parents, whether together or separately.

I actually have huge sympathy for the Prime Minister as he tries to pull off this supremely difficult balancing act of suppressing the virus while coaxing the country back to life. Its as if the Prince hacked his way through the thorns, scaled the palace walls, blew Sleeping Beauty a kiss from the other end of the bedchamber and, when she awoke, cried, Prithee, stay right there, beloved, and keep two metres away from me at all times!

To make a tricky situation even worse Boriss enemies, still smarting from their Brexit defeat, have no qualms about using a national crisis as a proxy war. Somehow, the PM must plot a course through the Scylla of a shamelessly opportunistic Nicola Sturgeon and the Charybidis of the trade unions who rather like having half of all adults on the state payroll and so set an impossible standard of 100% safe before members can return to work.

Read more:
Come on Boris, tell a frightened nation that its fears are out of proportion - Telegraph.co.uk