It could have been the greatest opportunity of our time for us to “step up to the plate”, as they say, and prove ourselves the match of those generations who have gone before us.

Fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers responded to their duty (no doubt, reluctantly) shouldering responsibilities to endure extremes of discomfort and sacrifice.

We have failed. We have failed both ourselves and them.

Beyond the initial 3-month lock-down, Covid Fatigue has set in.  “It was alright at the start but it’s gone beyond a joke now” (or somesuch similar) I hear people saying.  Joe (96) from our village would have liked to have said “This war’s gone beyond a joke now.  Three months of fighting’s enough for me.  I’m off home”.

And in my mind there is no question that those most guilty of the attitude are young people.  Certainly I hear their protests that they feel they are being made scapegoats for the spread of the pandemic, but do you see news reports of police dispersing the Old Age Pensioners 5 o’clock tea dance for breaking social distancing rules?

“It’s not us that’s affected” I hear them say.  And by and large they’re right.  But it’s those they kill who are.

In one sense though, there will be a payback from them.  Quite literally.

Britain finally paid off the Second World War loans it borrowed from the USA in 2006, over 60 years after the conflict ended.  Rishi Sunak’s subsidies to workers and businesses will take at least as long to pay back to creditors – a heavy burden for the younger and future generations.

I, on the other hand, shall be pushing up a new car park long before then.