“The one alcoholic drink you can buy a child in a pub,” said a colleague, “is perry.” A likely story, I thought.

Ridiculous laws had been in my mind for a year and more because of the Government’s response to this pandemic. Like many people, I prefer to do whatever I want, so I kept an eye on the coronavirus laws, most of them statutory instruments made in the name of Matt Hancock, the late Secretary of State for Health. The laws were bad enough but government people pretended that there were more restrictions, which in truth never were laws, such as a limit to an hour’s daily exercise.