In the pursuit of happiness (or, whatever it is we’re after) we jettison the Word of God that tells us where true happiness is to be found. Much like the food shortages, the problem only arises when we decide, in our infinite wisdom, that the Lord is wrong and we ought to take other precautions despite what he says.

As you no doubt know, there is a new variant of COVID-19 spreading across our country. Depending on who you happen to listen to, this is either a total disaster or, whilst it does allow the virus to spread more rapidly, isn’t all that significant otherwise. Ultimately, time will tell but those of us without the skills to parse all the information are, once again, having to bear with another raft of government decisions as a consequence that may or may not prove necessary.

With the new variant of COVID-19, we are now facing a brand new problem. It seems lots of European countries – particularly France – are not keen for Brits to go wandering through their countries because of the new strain. That, in turn, has led to the M20 – the motorway run-in to the port of Dover – turning into a giant lorry carpark.

That new truck stop has created another problem. The ban on freight crossing the channel led to Supermarkets stating that there was the possibility of food shortages. That sounds particularly bad until you read, as reported by the BBC, ‘If nothing changes, we will start to see gaps over the coming days on lettuce, some salad leaves, cauliflowers, broccoli and citrus fruit.’ Ultimately, nothing many people are going to be that fussed about and certainly no food that would be considered vital. Indeed, a spokesman for Sainsbury’s said, ‘all of its Christmas lunch products were “already in the country” and it was looking at alternative ways of sourcing products from Europe.’ It really isn’t going to be the biggest deal for us.

That, of course, didn’t stop people panic buying. Most bizarrely, people began panic buying toilet roll (again)! There is a possibility – a possibility that hasn’t been realised yet – that in several weeks we may have a run on lemons and lettuce, yet apparently that has been a cause for people running out to buy toilet roll, meat and all sorts of things that are entirely unaffected. The supermarkets have repeatedly told us that they have enough food for Christmas and beyond, there is no need to panic buy. Ironically, then, the only thing that will lead to a food shortage at the moment is if people don’t listen to the supermarkets and insist on unnecessary stockpiling that will lead to the food shortages we all want to avoid.

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