Coronavirus: What was so confusing about the Government’s Stay Alert slogan?

These days, it seems, you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

For example the Opposition, fuelled by an unhelpful confrontational mainstream media, has for some weeks been pressurising the Prime Minister for a road map for exiting lockdown.

On Sunday the PM provided an extremely articulate and (to most of us) a very clear summary for the way ahead.

And yet, predictably, because the Stay at Home strap line was replaced with Stay Alert to accompany the lockdown easing, the trade unions, Opposition and mainstream media decided once more to stir confusion into an already extremely complicated mix by saying Stay Alert is ambiguous and confusing.

I beg their pardons.

Alert is defined as “quick to notice any unusual and potentially dangerous circumstances; vigilant”. So what is ambiguous or confusing about that?

In order to stay safe, we need to be alert routinely in our everyday lives and this is one more instance where vigilance when away from home can save a life or the lives of someone else by adhering to the rules – mainly social distancing.

One would hope that industries in the UK would know their businesses well enough to either stay closed or put in place the required measures for employees to remain safe.

One would hope that employees could think for themselves to either stay at home or get to work safely. It’s time to ignore the trade unions, Opposition and mainstream media.

Give credit where its due and on this occasion, that’s to the government under extremely difficult circumstances.