If ever there was a misnomer, it is common sense.  Sense it may be, but it certainly ain’t common.  Experience shows just how uncommon it is.   Take the coronavirus, for example:

I do not think government advice has been particularly forthcoming, consistent, or clear; but, it is undoubtedly true that nobody from the Cornish Lizard to the  Sounds of Shetland could fail to be aware that coronavirus is highly contagious, and dangerous.  The advice, at its simplest, is: “Keep away from other people, and material that might have been infected: wash your hands.”  Difficult perhaps, in the execution, but hardly an intellectual challenge.  Or so you might think.

And yet, within the past 2 days remarks I have heard include: “it’s a shame they say they might have to close the swimming pool”; “I can’t bear it if/when we go into lockdown,  I’m enjoying my trips to the local coffee shops”; and, best of all, when told of the cancellation of planned ‘litter pick,’ one acquaintance remarked “feel free to take a glove each time you visit and pick up bits as you see them.”  Two friends have dropped round for a coffee, a chat and maybe a wee “stroll round the park.”   Such is the wisdom of the great British public.

Not so long ago we were told, by a senior government minister, that we had “heard enough from experts,” the Blitz spirit would rescue us.   We hadn’t and it won’t.   Even last week, the 3-Minute Wonder, Raab, the foreign secretary (by the way, we must, surely, be approaching time for his next departure from government) assured us that the coronavirus would be no obstacle to completing our severance from Europe by the end of this year.  He must be off his rocker.

Churchill remarked that “Democracy is the worst form of Government,” but added the rider that “except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”  He may have had a point, and Democracy is, no doubt,  a wonderful thing.   The “opium of the people” as you might say,  but in terms of common sense, it leaves a lot to be desired.

My point is twofold: first, government needs to take a firm grip on the current situation. It is not enough to rely on public understanding and goodwill.  Second, allowing the country to stagger race towards economic and diplomatic oblivion on the grounds that “they voted for it,” did not, does not, and will not,  justify the self-destruction of Brexit. It should be halted, effective immediate.