IN 50 years, grandparents will tell of the time a deadly virus kept them off school and away from friends.

Today’s children will remember their experiences so please keep them happy and positive.

I look back to the early 1950s when food rationing and shortages were still happening after WW2.

This is why it annoys me to see empty shelves in supermarkets, selfish people denying others of buying essentials.

It makes me wonder how much of this hoarding will actually end up thrown in the bin, it’s total madness.

The shortage of loo rolls reminds me of early childhood days sat in front of the radio on a Sunday evening, tearing up the weeks newspapers into squares and threading them onto a string to hang inside the outside toilet, yes, most toilets were outside in the cold.

Maybe our much-loved Gazette may need to play another important social ‘function’ in the months to come, rather than being consigned to the recycle box.

This pandemic has revealed the best and worst traits in our society, stories of kindness and pulling together to do the’ right thing’ mixed up with incidents of extreme stupidity, selfishness and greed.

It is exposing the downside of Britain’s consumer led society and its’ self-preservation psyche, it is not agreeable. Then you see the contradiction, wonderful support for our NHS staff, superb!

Remember that COVID-19 will mutate and return within a year.

We have enough time to adjust our attitudes and the Government will have no excuse for not being prepared to take early action, especially to ensure that our front-line NHS troops and other services have the correct protection and early testing. An abundance of global statistics, the development of drugs and better public awareness will hopefully prevent the avoidable problems we have today, we may also see a bit of common humanity creeping in.

Roy Wilcock

Castle Riggs

Kendal