We are hear­ing a lot of talk about the size of fish be­ing caught by the pro­tec­tive forces dur­ing the cur­rent state of emer­gency. It is be­ing tout­ed by some crit­ics of the State for the im­po­si­tion of the SoE that on­ly the small fish are be­ing caught and "Mr Big" con­tin­ues to re­lax in lux­u­ry in West­moor­ings, Hale­land Park and Bel Air. (Res­i­dents of five-star ho­tels not in­clud­ed.) In main­tain­ing the anal­o­gy of fish­ing, I can­not help but re­call Lord Nel­son's ca­lyp­so about a big ly­ing com­pe­ti­tion. In that song one con­tender had to "mek a lie" about his fa­ther who caught a fish many miles in length and span.

An­oth­er con­tender replied that that fish that "the fel­la fa­ther used to catch, his fa­ther used for bait." Should we throw the "small" fish back in­to the sea and so con­serve and pro­tect that par­tic­u­lar species of fish? (Re­turn them to the five-star ho­tel?) Or should we not use them as a means to get to the big­ger fish? Would not a dif­fer­ent type of fish­ing tack­le be re­quired to haul in the big fish? Is that not what was re­cent­ly done with leg­is­la­tion passed to in­ves­ti­gate those with mega bank ac­counts with a fishy smell? Should we ex­pect to see "Mr Big" with his pants halfway down his back­side be­ing placed in­to the tray of a po­lice pick-up?

V Lutch­man

Mar­aval