Well I am officially one year older since I penned my last rant and that makes me pretty damned ancient. Yet for all my advanced age – perhaps because of it – I find it difficult to believe that I am living in the real world rather than some sort of pantomime tragedy that is being enacted around me..

I mean, let us look at events yesterday for example. This was the day that a brand new and hopefully effective Coronabug vaccine was rolled out and administered to a few willing subjects. I was in this country when England won the 1966 football world cup and there was joy in the land then that was well deserved. It was a spectacular achievement and was duly trumpeted as such, but yesterday there was possibly even more self congratulation among out witless leaders and their obedient media followers.

The asinine health secretary Mathew Hancock pretended to cry on television while Coventry Grandmother, Margaret Keenan made newspaper headlines as being the ‘first person in ‘the entire world’ to receive a dollop of the vaccine in her arm. Yes, but I hesitate to point out that Britain is the only place in ‘the entire world’ where the stuff is available damnit.

As for Hancock, he dabbed his very dry eyes and burbled something to the effect that, “There is so much work that’s gone into this and it really, really … I’m just proud to be British.” Are you Mr Health Secretary? Really? Why? I am sure I am right in saying that a couple of Turks first produced the vaccine using German facilities and all Britain did was buy the ruddy stuff. That surely does not warrant a Red Arrows celebratory flypast – or tears from a prattish politician. Britain being the first country to roll out a Coronabug vaccine feels less of a gritty victory won in the trenches and more like camping overnight for three days outside an Apple store to be the first to buy an iPhone. Yes, you did it, Mr Hancock but I find it very difficult to give you any credit for it. Government handling of the pandemic has been inept, chaotic and terribly divisive and that is only so far.

Take the case of Trevor Payne who lives in Staffordshire. For many years Mr Payne has decorated the outside of his property with thousands of Christmas lights to raise money for charity. People come from miles around to see the display and most of them leave a contribution in the relevant collecting box and various mental health charities have benefited from this.

But last Saturday evening, the police were called to his property following reports of a ‘large gathering’ on the street. Officers ordered him to turn off his stunning seasonal display or face a hefty fine of ten thousand pounds for breaching coronavirus regulations – leaving families and children heartbroken.

People coming to see the lights told reporters that Mr Payne had gone to great lengths to make his garden safe from the Coronabug by implementing a one-way system with hand sanitising stations. They also claimed he had received full clearance beforehand from council bosses to ensure he was not flouting any Government rules.

Where is the common sense behind this sort of thing and why are this hapless government allowing it? Payne and his family were merely raising money in a good cause and doing no harm to anybody. In fact they were giving joy to a number of people and joy has been in short supply of late. It is surely worse than ludicrous that people are allowed to queue in and outside supermarkets and tacky shops yet not allowed to enjoy an event that is doing so much good for all concerned – not least the children attending who have little else to make this Christmas special.

In another instance of petty officialdom becoming power hungry, the manageress of a bar-restaurant which had only just reopened after the last lockdown says ‘bolshy’ Covid marshals were sent to investigate after it offered free Scotch eggs for drinkers.

Rachael Parke said the Number 29 was visited twice in the same day by two young men last week.

The local council said the marshals went to the restaurant to investigate complaints that it was offering the eggs in social media posts in an attempt to get around Covid rules on having ‘substantial meals’ with drinks.

But Miss Parke said the establishment in Burnham Market, Norfolk, had done nothing wrong and criticised the officials’ ‘aggressive’ approach.

.’They didn’t ask anything, they just came in and were bolshy, wearing high-vis jackets and looking more like security thugs than giving advice.’

She added: ‘The council need to think about the training. They need to be open and approachable and give us advice rather than this stern approach which makes you think they want to take over the premises in a really aggressive manner.’

A spokesman for North Norfolk Council said: ‘A complaint was received that Number 29 was advertising on social media that every customer would receive a free Scotch egg with an alcoholic drink.’

So what? Only last week, a cabinet minister told the world that a scotch egg would constitute a substantial meal so I would suggest that someone in this benighted government clears up the definition or more and more little businesses are going to be hammered into closing by overbearing council officials in their yellow ‘high-vis’ jackets – the sort of jackets in fact that out Revered Leader likes to be photographed in.

I feel that perhaps there is a moral there! Why does this clown always posture for the cameras in a yellow jacket and hard hat? Is he trying to show that he is a man of action? We want leadership and statesmanship Mr Johnson, not posing as a hard man for the cameras.

In 1966, the national jubilation was fully justified. In 2020 it is not. This terribly fractured and divided society has nothing to congratulate itself about and my personal concern is that we are all being urged to take a vaccine that has not really been properly tested.

In view of my age, the call to be injected with the stuff will soon come. Then I must make the decision as to whether I want it or not. The last time I had a ‘flu jab,’ I nearly died so for me – advanced age or not – this will not be an easy decision and I only wish I had more faith in the system.

Johnson, Hancock and their gloomy and self important ‘experts’ have rather ruined any faith I might have had though.