POLITICIANS from all parties as well as Sir Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer of the NHS, are now saying the same thing.

The NHS is in danger of being overrun and collapsing, so please stay at home.

Sir Keir Starmer among others is also saying the rules that have been laid down are not strong enough.

So what should be done differently?

For a start, before any stricter measures are introduced, the ones that are already in place should be enforced more rigorously.

By that I don’t just mean that more fines should be issued, but those that have already been issued should be collected not tomorrow or next week but now.

This is extremely important because I have a gut feeling those that have been fined think they won’t need to pay them when this pandemic is over.

We have to show them that we mean business.

We are not playing games.

If they can't pay then goods to the value of the penalty should be redeemed from their homes, including if necessary the love of their lives their cars.

Licensees who break the rules should also lose their licence for at least five years.

We are at war with an invisible enemy we cannot afford to take chances.

E A Molyneux, by email