I can’t make my mind up whether members of the ‘one rule for us’ brigade are actually trolling us deliberately or whether they are so ‘elite’ and self-regarding they just don’t take us mere mortals into account and we just don’t factor into their thinking.

First off, we have the now well-documented Dominic Cummings and his infamous ‘emergency’ trip to Durham and the laughable ‘Barnard Castle eye test’. That was bad on so many levels.

Don’t forget, Cummings was one of the architects of the government’s lockdown policy that us mere mortals were sticking to assiduously.

We had put our lives on hold because we were told that was the way to get the coronavirus under control.

We couldn’t travel, we couldn’t see our loved ones. We couldn’t hold the hand of a dying relative and we had to watch their funerals on Facetime. And we stuck to the rules because that was the right thing to do.

But not Mr Cummings. Oh no. He was far too elite for things like that to apply to him. One rule for him, one for the rest of us.

The problem is really one of trust. For better or worse, we had no option other than to trust the government had our best interests at heart and actually knew what it was doing.

They told us it was in our own best interests to lock down and stay at home. And we believed them and did as we were told…until Cummings and the Barnard Castle eye test.

It was at that point people thought perhaps the lockdown measures weren’t quite as stringent as we thought. And given that Mr Cummings went unpunished, maybe we to could break the regulations if we thought ‘it was in the best interests of our family’.

To be perfectly honest, the level of trust between the people and the government over its handling of the pandemic has been little more than a thin veneer which has only survived because people are frightened for their own safety.

“We will keep working to strengthen the protective ring we have cast around all our care homes,” said Secretary of State for Health Matt Hancock. Given more than 20,000 care home residents have died of coronavirus after elderly patients were discharged into homes from hospital without being tested, you’ll be forgiven if I don’t quite trust Mr Hancock and his government.

You can add to the list of things I don’t quite trust the government on: The fatally abysmal track record over excess deaths, late lockdown, inadequate PPE, not enough ventilators, pathetically poor test, track and trace (including the failed app), the comical failure to put travel restrictions in place when it should have done and then imposing them when most other countries have the virus under control and we don’t.

Which brings me to the latest member of the ‘one rule for us’ brigade. Step forward none other than the Prime Minister’s very own father Stanley Johnson.

For those of you who missed this story, the Foreign Office advice for weeks has stated that foreign travel should be avoided unless it is ‘essential’.

Greece imposed a far tougher lockdown than we did and at the time of writing had had 192 deaths from coronavirus so obviously wasn’t particularly happy with the prospect of travellers from the plague island that is the UK flooding in, so all direct flights between Britain and Greece were banned.

But what do you do if you’re the Prime Minister’s dad and just happen to own a villa in Greece that you rent out to paying customers? Well it’s obvious isn’t it?

You’re an elite so you completely ignore the Foreign Office advice and circumvent the ban on flights by flying first to Sofia in Bulgaria and then on to Greece. Oh, and by the way, you can also troll the plebs, the little people, by posting holiday snaps on your Instagram account as well, thereby telling the world what you are doing.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t blame or condemn Boris Johnson for what his dad has done. He wouldn’t be able to control his father any more than my son could control anything I do. But given the circumstances, maybe a few words of criticism may not have gone amiss.

Don’t forget, all this happened just before ‘Super Saturday’, ‘Independence Day’, or whatever stupid name you want to give to the pubs and bars reopening. It also followed in the wake of a spike of Covid-19 cases in Leicester (yes, the virus is still very much with us).

The pubs could reopen, according to the Prime Minister, because he trusted ‘Great British common sense’.

It’s hard to maintain that trust when your own father doesn’t even listen to you, why should some bloke down the pub? Why should any of us?

The fact remains, the responsibility for public health protection has now clearly passed from the government to the individual. If you get the virus, it’s your fault. You’ll excuse me then, if I elect not to join in the Independence Day celebrations. Somehow I don’t think 65,000 excess deaths is anything to celebrate.