EDUCATION standards are definitely slipping.

Casual observation of  the dosy dawdlers slowly refilling out streets indicates that this is so.

So many citizens  are showing an inability to read.  To them, the inscribed shapes appearing all around them are nothing more than heiroglyphics.

And those who have passed the brain-straining next step of transforming these symbols into actual words have yet to master the skill required to understand the meaning of such shapes. They remain incapable of  comprehending any messages these words are trying to convey.

It is as if the majority of the populace have been struck by selective blindness; they cannot see the innumerable signs being posted to keep us aware of the dangers of Covid-19.

Or, as posited above, they have lost the ability to read and reason.  Unlearned or forgotten basics of daily existence. An unmentioned side effect of this pandemic.

How else to account for the way people unapologetically bump into each other (as they have always done), walk on the right when told to keep left (or meander all over the place), and cough and expectorate like an overpaid footballer who believes he is beyond compliance with the rules imposed on the rest of us?

Those who railed and ranted for the easing of lockdown are the same as who stormed the shopping barricades the moment stores were allowed to reopen in wanton disregard of the conditions attached to their newfound freedom.

Yes, you can rush out and panic buy (haven’t we been here before?) in Primark, Sports Direct, Ikea and Nike as if in desperate need of knickers and tees, baggy trackie pants, Billy shelves or the latest overpriced trainers. But this loosening of the leash will soon be reined in if you ignore the signs.

What signs? Yes, dummy, the ones you blindly ignore that say keep your distance, cover that cough, keep to the left, queue here, only two customers at a time etc etc.

Penalties for non-compliance will cost you money. But the biggest penalty, as we have already learned, is the ultimate and most painful one. And Primark have yet to open a store the other side of the Pearly Gates.