The sense of national unity and common purpose with which we entered lockdown has evaporated. Not surprising; the Government had to be dragged into it kicking and screaming while the rest of Europe seized the initiative and, as a consequence, is now emerging more quickly and with considerably less damage.

Some schools are reopening; others are not ready. Some parents are prepared to take what even the Government admits is a calculated risk; other are wary. Some people respect advice to stay away from beaches; others crowd together or leap from the rocks. Some people continue to respect social distancing; others ignore. Inevitable really.

After so many weeks of ‘lockdown’ we’re all fed up and want it to end. The PM’s defence that his own adviser was free to interpret clear stay-at-home instructions differently from everyone else and agreed that anxiety about a potential consequences should override public good has shredded any vestige of authority the Government had to direct us to make personal sacrifice for the common good. By all accounts, ‘test and trace’ is being promulgated well before it is ready, the formerly essential App disappearing over the Isle of Wight horizon.

Coming out of lockdown was always going to be messier than going in. Venturing out into an uncertain and hostile world is a lot scarier than hunkering down at home. Add the sprinkling of confused guidance, disagreement from experts, hypocrisy and inconsistency, different routes in Scotland and Wales and the dawning realisation that the Government’s self-assured independent ‘following-the-science’ ‘go it alone’ approach, rooted in its determination to take a different path from Europe has actually wreaked more damage and caused greater loss of life, then our nervousness is well justified.

No surprise that graphs and comparisons have long since disappeared from the nightly, government briefings. And which of us wasn’t prepared to sacrifice our freedom to save the lives of our beloved NHS and its nurses and care workers who were risking theirs lives for ours?

But that’s in the past. We have saved the NHS. Now we’re on our own. Test and Trace relies on compliance; on each of us taking personal responsibility and being prepared to put other people’s health and well-being ahead of personal comfort or livelihood, should we become identified as a contact of someone who has the virus.

The PM’s defence of risky and selfish behaviour is in stark contrast to the public mood: a resurgence of community spirit, of people helping each other out, volunteering to support the NHS, deliver vital medical supplies and groceries; of our health and care workers putting their lives on the line in order to care for the most vulnerable.

The expression ‘Lions led by Donkeys’ is a widely used epithet from the First World War. It seems just as apt a century later.