Sometimes when I’m looking for something to say, I come across someone else’s words that sum up how I’m feeling much more eloquently than I ever could.

I’d intended to write about how the coronavirus pandemic had brought out the very best in us but how it had also brought out the very worst in some of us. But someone had beaten me to it.

These are the opening lines from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, first published in 1859:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Yep, well said Charles. We have certainly seen some wonderful examples of humanity over recent weeks. We’ve had volunteers going out of their way to help people. We’ve had the Thursday night applause for front line workers. We’ve had the unbelievable efforts of NHS workers. We all pulled together to save ourselves, to save each other, to save the NHS and to save the country.

But all that now seems a distant memory as we move into what Dickens describes as ‘the age of foolishness’.

In my opinion, that foolishness starts right at the top.

Is the government foolish to start lifting the lockdown at the same time as giving us mixed messages about the reduction of social distancing? I think so.

Is the government foolish to start lifting the lockdown when the number of new coronavirus cases is higher today than when we went into lockdown? I think so.

Is the government foolish to start lifting lockdown when the number of deaths today is higher than when we went into lockdown? I think so.

And by the way, I’m not making up those figures. The website worldometers.info shows that on Saturday, June 27, the seven-day rolling average of new cases in the UK was 1,020 (that’s more than 7,000 new cases of coronavirus a week but the actual figure is likely to be much higher). On March 23, the day the UK was put into official lockdown, the same seven-day rolling average was just 729.

Taking the same dates, the seven-day rolling average number of deaths on Saturday was 133. On the day we went into lockdown, the average number of deaths was 42.

And can I just point out that somewhat worryingly, the number of daily deaths had been on a downward trend but for the week up to Saturday, June 27, that curve hasn’t shown any improvement. The number of deaths has hardly changed, ranging from 133 to 137. The day the country was locked down, there were 74 deaths.

So we’re actually easing the lockdown and social distancing regulations when the figures are significantly worse than when they were imposed.

To be honest, the government lost control of the lockdown message when Dominic Cummings went unpunished for his Barnard Castle eye test jaunt.

What’s good enough for Dom is good enough for the rest of us, isn’t it?

But the announcement that social distancing was now one metre plus coupled with the news that the pubs were opening again was the final nail in the coffin of any attempt to control the Great British Stella-drinking masses.

So what did we get? Well, night after night of illegal street parties in London, half a million people cramming themselves onto the beach at Bournemouth and Liverpool supporters ‘celebrating’ by crowding the Pier Head area for the new sport of seeing who can most accurately fire a rocket or flare at the Grade I listed Liver Building. Such fun.

And you don’t even have to travel to the big city or the seaside to see ‘the worst of times’.

Pickmere Parish Council has had to make a formal complaint to Cheshire East Council over what it says is CEC’s ‘failure’ to respond to calls and emails about problems caused by a flood of visitors to Pickmere Lake.

Since the easing of lockdown thousands of visitors from Cheshire, Manchester and Liverpool have flocked to Pickmere Lake during the good weather.

Roads and pavements have been obstructed by parked cars and huge amounts of litter have had to be collected by volunteers while other problems include public health issues due to the lack of public toilets, large groups of young people gathering, drinking and using various ‘substances’; aggression towards residents and other anti-social behaviour.

So that’s it then. Despite the dire warnings from the government’s chief medical officer that the virus is still with us, what people are hearing is Boris Johnson’s jokey plea to bring back the ‘bustle’.

I’m just wondering how bustling Covid-19 wards are going to be in a couple of weeks.

There’s a lot of talk about a so-called second wave of the virus waiting for us. What a pity we’ve not even got out of the first wave yet.