Crooked Spire vicar’s column: We’re going to need common sense as lockdown changes

I have no more idea than anyone else how this is going to work out, but the comments and ideas I have heard in the news, in social media and elsewhere are really beginning to make me wonder.

John Mortimer’s Rumpole of the Bailey regularly comes up against a judge who considers himself a perfect example of ‘good Northern common sense’.

Played by the great James Grout, he regularly tells juries that they can use their common sense – which in his case usually favours the prosecution!

OK – we’ve seen enough reported examples of people without any common sense doing stupid things and putting their own and others’ health at risk over the past weeks, and there are still people around who have evidently just arrived from Mars and don’t seem to know what’s asked of them.

But most people actually do have some common sense, and we’re going to need it as the lockdown changes.

Yes, there will need to be temporary detailed regulations to ensure safety in the workplace and a great deal of other things – but do we really need to be told when and where our promised ‘unlimited leisure’ should take place?

Have we got to the stage where we need to be spoon-fed everything?

It's clear that to some extent both Government and its critics are at sea in these difficult times.

In many cases, they are obviously not sure what to put on the spoon, let alone which mouths to offer the spoon to.

Hence the frustration of those who do want to be spoon-fed.

But there are some basic rules, and a bit of consideration and – let’s hear it – common sense should get us through the next stages.

The question really is – do we want to be a nation or a community divided between the spoon-fed and the feckless?

Thank God for the vast majority of people who are still making careful decisions about their conduct and attitudes at this time.

And let’s pray for an outbreak of common sense, which on a personal level is surely our best weapon against most threats.

Keep safe and keep well.