I nearly added to the heading, 'despite everything.' As I write, tougher restrictions are being brought in across the UK, to the extent that the difference between our current situation and the lockdown last March is getting harder and harder to see.
I know how easy it is to feel that 'somebody' is to blame for all of this, and that 'the authorities' don't know what they're doing. The media in particular is becoming expert at asking the exact opposite awkward question to the one they asked the week before.
Before you vent on Twitter, however, I'd ask you to consider a time in your own working life when you had to do something unprecedented. Almost any job has evolved templates, checklists, and processes, built up often over decades to learn from the mistakes of the past and avoid making them again. Usually, they're your safety net.
At the moment, the world is flying by the seat of its pants. There are no templates or checklists - and even the experiences of the early parts of the pandemic can be false friends to policymakers, as the virus mutates and changes direction.
So let's stay safe, and stay understanding: even of our politicians!
