I SIT every day with my cuppa to listen to the daily updates from 10 Downing Street about the coronavirus pandemic. I find myself increasingly seething at the level of banality in the questions from journalists. The journalists are too focused on figures and dates.

At the beginning of the pandemic the public was told that a bad test was worse than no test, but the journalists have cajoled or even bullied the Government to making a commitment to an arbitrary date with an arbitrary figure of tests. No test is 100 per cent certain and these tests are deemed to be less reliable than others. It can only be assumed that a number of doctors, nurses and key workers will be going back to work when they are not fit to do so in this rush to meet a deadline.

The figures that are given of the number of deaths each day are meant to show the depth of human misery this pandemic is causing. The journalists are using the raw figures to create a football-style league table, ignoring the impact on the families who have lost loved ones. Does it matter whether a person dies, in France, Spain, South Korea or anywhere in the world?

The journalists focus their attacks on the individual in the room in Downing Street, ignoring the many people behind the scenes. Anyone who has played a team game will know that captains, match officials and individuals make mistakes. A good leader is one that can rally the rest of the group to make good any flaw. Any intelligent potential future candidate for a ministerial position will know that people make mistakes. Only fools will think they are flawless. My fear is that any intelligent candidate witnessing the ‘Aunt Sally’ style show at Downing Street will be put off being ministers and our government will be comprised of fools who think they are flawless.

We all need to remember that the people doing the job in government was put there by us, the British public. When a journalists seeks to embarrass a minister by making them apologise they are embarrassing us because we chose them. The government needs to be stronger. It is the journalists who are out of touch. Others are sewing scrubs for the NHS, making masks, out delivering food to the needy and millions of pounds are being donated to charity. Let’s all pull together and support the people we voted for.

Robert Moore

Watford