Letter: I’m keeping my masks on

So Boris, along with The Dynamic Duo, who answer to the names of Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance, took to the podium again and confirmed last week during another Downing Street briefing that Liberation Day was definitely going ahead.

Mask wearing will no longer be mandatory for a start, although Boris encourages people to wear them in crowded places. That’s all well and good, but there are a number of people who just can not be bothered and if Boris gives these people an inch, they’ll take a thousand miles.

OK, they’ll think, we no longer have to wear a mask, so we are damn well not going to.

Meanwhile, the Covid rates are soaring again. They are going in the wrong direction, hardly the right time to relax the restrictions.

If not now, then when, trumpets the health secretary.

His point is that if we don’t get in there now and grab a window of opportunity, we will be in an even worse position to loosen the shackles when the autumn comes along, bringing with it an even larger number of Covid cases. That equates to someone deciding to cross the road when a car is coming, because there are going to be even more later on.

I’ve said before that it’s too early, and I’m saying it again.

Call me a broken record, a wet blanket, a party pooper, whatever, but this will turn round and bite Boris right on his sit-upon.

The youngsters who can’t wait to bin their face masks because they reckon that, at their age, they won’t get Covid badly, can think again.

Apparently, new statistics have shown that younger people are also getting severely ill with Covid.

I for one will still be masking up.

My eclectic range of face coverings, ranging from a badger’s stripey face, a variety of woodland animals (including badgers of course), and a zipped-up mouth (yes I know...), are all going to be put in to service and will continue to be while ever Covid is on the scene, no matter how long that takes.

I appreciate that the hospitality industry and entertainment business need to be opened up again and the economy is creaking and groaning, but if we are to be opening up more places, we should be donning those face coverings more, not less.

Boris and his associates, to be fair, urge us to proceed with caution. If only everyone could be trusted to do so.

We shall see, but for the foreseeable, I will be rocking the highwayman look. Far too risky not to do so!

My face coverings are definitely not destined for the wheelie bin!