When you ask to be kept safe what do you expect?

Is the word “safe” like the word “fair” one of those that get your blood boiling when someone else uses it because you know that it can only be achieved in relative rather than absolute terms and because you can’t guarantee absolute safety or absolute fairness and you are going to be branded a liar or a fool if you try.

None of us is, or ever will be, safe because we will all die. Fairness is much the same, as can be illustrated by use of a set of scales with both pans empty. They will eventually settle on one side or the other.

The demand to be safe is a current pandemic preoccupation for those who are afraid to leave lock-down and re-enter the wider world or allow their children to do so. The reluctance demonstrates a childlike need for reassurance from Mummy’s apron that the dangers outside will be manageable. The concerns tend to ignore the risks inherent in staying at home where domestic abuse, damaged educational development and damaged physical and mental health, not to forget domestic and DIY accidents, are real and statistically significant.

Boris, in the guise of Mummy’s apron, wants us to use that rarest of all assets, common sense. Do we dare to take the risk?