THE complexities of responding to the Covid pandemic. Winchester Cathedral has announced that the German market will return this year but not the ice rink.

Anyone who has been to the annual event will know that the market is usually packed with people walking at shuffling pace shoulder to shoulder amid the crowds. The ice however is usually relatively clear as the numbers are controlled. We would expect numbers to the market to be limited this year but even so it is hard to see how there can be as effective social distancing as can be attained on the ice.

It may be that there were logistical reasons why the ice rink operator was not engaged, perhaps certainty was needed.

It goes to show how complicated is the campaign against Covid. Everything was so much simpler when the message was ‘stay home, protect the NHS, save lives’. Now life is getting back to ‘normal’ but no-one is quite sure how to get there. The libertarians banging on about the insidious evil of having to wear face masks aren’t helping. They forget living in a civilised society often means giving up liberty. No-one is free to shout fire in a crowded cinema, to drink and drive or pitch a tent in someone else’s garden.