Letter: Not acceptable to ‘enforce’ guidance
A reader questions the interpretation of government guidelines concerning wearing masks in public.
Prestidigitation.
Driver: “Where’s your face mask?”
Passenger (showing bus-pass): “I don’t need one because I’m well”.
Driver: “How can you know that?”
Passenger: “Because, according to official guidance, the sole purpose of a home-made face-mask is to offer reassurance to other people that you won’t pass on any infectious illness you may have, so not wearing one is my way of letting you know that I’m fit and well”.
Driver: “That’s as may be, but you’re not getting on this bus until I see YOUR TEST RESULT”.
Since when did “tests will be carried out” (which replaces “tests may become available”, but comes to the same thing) change to “buy a pocket handkerchief online and a few hairbands with your own money and pretend that you’ve been tested”? If an experienced Police Force is unable to “enforce” guidance (because guidance is what informs law, not what replaces it), when did it become acceptable for everybody else to claim to be able to do this?
