David Moore despairs at the lack of diversity and common sense from those in power

When Matthew Syed wrote about the Twin Towers terrorist attacks, he said the CIA did not see the threat because they (the CIA) were too white, too Presbyterian, too Ivy League, too male, to understand the threat from a man in a cave. Does that sound familiar? It's our great leaders: too male, too white, too Harrow, too Eton, no one from a comprehensive in Blackpool. Not enough common sense and diversity to see we are sleepwalking into a hospitality disaster of our own making.

Unusually, I enjoyed reading Luke Johnson in The Sunday Times – he calls the lockdown a "sunk cost fallacy". We have spent so much on the first lockdown that we can't admit it was wrong. In fact, we can't get the idea into our heads that there is simply a better way, so we head straight into another lockdown. This reminds me of my first car, a Mini Cooper. I overpaid for it, did not recognise it to be a wreck, and I constantly had to pay out to keep it on the road. Finally I broke the cycle and bought the less sexy Opal Kadet.

The sensible money would be spent on getting the Nightingales set up as the first line of defence, keeping our hospitals free for everyday care. Invest, give grants and test kits to care homes, devise better public health messaging, pay full salary to people who are self-isolating as they are serving the nation. Invest in shielding, cocooning and protection of vulnerable people and do not lock down 50 million healthy human beings. I fear our inner circle has few ideas and certainly no imagination to see a way forward. It feels like we are all screwed, but maybe the post-Cummings era will prove me wrong.

It feels like we are all screwed, but maybe the post-Cummings era will prove me wrong

I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but some things need to be said, as unpleasant as they are, and one is that people die every day. I know that every death is a tragedy for the individual and for that family, but a nation of 60 million people cannot have their lives and livelihoods held ransom for 20% of the nation. And with the average age of a Covid-19 fatality at 82 years old, it just isn't right. The preferred wisdom for the vaccine is to give it to those over 80 years of age first, but then I read a letter to the editor in Metro Talk. Paula from Edinburgh writes: "As an 80 year old, I'm appalled that older people will be vaccinated first. We have had the best years of our lives – accept that we are happy to be the final phase [of vaccinations]. Surely NHS staff, carers, shop staff and all the furloughed workers should be given it first to get the country back up and running. Older people will not be around to pay off the financial debt. Can we have less emotion, please, and lots more common sense?"

I'd recruit Marcus Rashford to promote this concept, as he's the most potent and ‘on the money' politician of the year. His cause demonstrated perfectly what a bunch of white male idiots we have running the country, voting against helping the poorest in society, the hungry children, during school holidays. Can any single decision by government prove just how lacking in diversity we are?

I'm afraid we need to cross our fingers and toes, as I fear for our future.