Is an Easter Egg essential? Is five miles away local? Can I sit on a park bench?
These are just a few in a long line of silly arguments and non-stories about whether someone has precisely followed the Government’s rather imprecise Covid regulations. Some have taken to calling this ‘Scotch Egging’ in honour of the ludicrous, protracted debate over what constitutes a “substantial” pub meal.
This week’s Scotch Egging is a row over whether Boris Johnson’s recent bike ride around the Olympic Park was really ‘local’, given that it took place seven miles from Downing Street. In a similar vein, Derbyshire Police got themselves into a stink by fining two women £200 for driving five miles for a walk around a reservoir. The absurdity of that story was compounded by an officer apparently telling one of the women that her peppermint tea was “classed as a picnic” – if this is a police state, then it’s quite a silly one.