The most unsettling and bewildering of the government's efforts to slow down the second surge is the series of on and off decisions, often made with little notice.
The latest, the six months clamp down, has undone the good work done by businesses and organisations of all types and sizes trying to prevent a difficult situation becoming desperate.
The hospitality industry is in the worst position.
Hotels and pubs, at great expense, have done everything possible to comply with the rigid rules and, just as the public was feeling it was safe to go out, along comes a curfew, making it even harder for businesses to cover their costs let alone survive.
The very successful bargain meals scheme offered by the chancellor merely emphasised the gap between hope and reality of a reprieve.
Sport is equally hard hit. The ingenuity that has seen many sports preparing for the eerily silent stadiums to come back to life next month has been dashed.
All types of sport are at risk, with soccer and its mass appeal in greatest danger.
In the theatre world, the move back to live performances, despite expensive experiments to try to solve the health and audience numbers problem, has left the industry, especially the largest theatres, in limbo.
The government's £1.57m grant to arts and culture has been dismissed by the Theatres Trust as not nearly enough, as has the new jobs support scheme announced by the chancellor.
They say theatres, at 40 percent capacity, are not viable and that audiences of at least 70 percent are needed
Our lives, work and play, are becoming duller from the lack of arts, entertainment and sport.
The government has an almost impossible task in finding a solution, striking a balance balance between our health and the economic well being of the nation.
They must realise that the lighter side of life is important and make more effort to encourage, not destroy it.
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