As twitchers expect and recognise behavioural patterns in the birds that they watch, my colleagues who advise in the areas of employment and health and safety at work have come to expect the behavioural patterns which occur around changes to Covid restrictions. It starts with trailing by statements dropped into interviews by ministers. It continues with mentions of what might happen in the near future in government press conferences. The next stage is a government announcement, generally made in an official press briefing, supported by written information which describes what has been announced. At that point, the political process has been dealt with, and our phones start ringing as employers want to know what the implications of the new rules are for them. The trouble is that at that stage, no official guidance has been issued, so no-one has anything to work with and employers and employees remain in limbo for several days. The result is a lot of speculation, worry and confusion which seems entirely avoidable. Then when it’s issued, the guidance is often unclear.

And so it is that we currently have confusion about a number of things, including the wearing of masks. We’re asked to behave responsibly, but, as the scenes in Leicester Square and at Wembley showed last weekend, people’s idea of responsible behaviour differs vastly. As a consequence, a number of our city mayors have taken away the choice as to whether or not to wear a mask by requiring continued mask wearing on public transport, retailers such as Waterstones have said that they will expect masks to be worn in their shops, Goldman Sachs are expecting masks to be worn in the office and a number of restaurants have said that their rules won’t change to try to reassure people that dining with them will be as safe as it can be.

The mix is further complicated by the continuing operation of the track and trace app and self-isolation regime. Whether you agree with the relaxation of the rules in the face of the rapid spread of the Delta variant or not, it is surely inconsistent with the principle that we are now sufficiently immunised to be let off the leash (albeit in the expectation that we will still respond to the whistle) which is bound to promote spread of infection and at the same time require self-isolation for those who contract the virus. That situation will continue to play havoc with employers and industrial production until the date, inexplicably set for the middle of August, that self-isolation rules will lapse.

Unless there is something very subtle that we’re not being told, the situation seems to be the product of incomplete thought processes with the government’s political agenda having trumped the boring task of working through the consequences of its actions. It’s not a first for this government. We have seen it previously in Covid-related matters. We’re also seeing it in the recent statements that the levelling up agenda can bring prosperity to the North without having any impact on the South, which seems economically impossible without sustained exponential growth, and in the condemnation of racist abuse of footballers which follows from criticism of footballers taking the knee before games. There is a degree of irony to all this, since the consideration of consequences of our actions is, by necessity, an inherent element of acting responsibly.

We have ended up in a situation where for some people next Monday is a long awaited day of release when freedoms are returned to us, whilst for others, it is a day of anxiety because of uncertainty about how to behave and worry about how others will behave. Those running hospitals will be watching the admissions figures with everything crossed and those running factories will be hoping that they will have a sufficient workforce available on a day to day basis to be able to run production effectively. The majority of us will just get on with it and hope that the disruption, the impact on the NHS and the inevitable conflicts which will arise from one person’s assertion of freedom clashing with another’s desire not to be put at unnecessary risk of infection are not severe. If you think I’m being unfair, I would point out in my own defence that I can think of few other occasions on which the Daily Mail and The Guardian have been so aligned in their views of the actions of a government and the consequences and implications of those actions.

After all that, something to lighten the mood. To mark Father’s Day, a competition organized by Aldi Mamia asked fathers to submit their favourite Dad jokes. Here is a selection of the commended entries

What did the pirate say on his 80th birthday? Aye, matey

I was wondering why the frisbee kept looking bigger and bigger, and then it hit me

Someone has glued my pack of cards together I don’t know how to deal with it

What did the daddy buffalo say to his son when he left for work? Bison

When the groans have subsided, there’s sunshine to look forward to for the weekend - do enjoy it!

Ian Waine leads Prettys’ Corporate Services Team and has advised on a large number of corporate recovery and corporate restructuring cases over the last 30 years. He can be contacted at 07979 498817 or iwaine@prettys.co.uk.