The fact that Mr Johnson has decided to communicate to everyone in the nation has mixed benefits. For anyone without access to the internet or a TV or Radio this may seem like a sensible way of ensuring that everyone will be kept informed. The concerns about the risk of COVID-19 arriving on the envelope or even in the letter inside is bound to cause some people to ignore the item altogether. Given that his letter was written several days before it arrives is bound to make it potentially out of date. The news that it has cost around £6m is yet another argument for not writing a letter, given how such funds could potentially be better used. Clearly it would have been possible for the text to have been added to a newsletter that could have been set out locally at a County or District level which would potentially have enabled the funds to be used in a more effective way as the letter could arrive along with specific news from the local communities. Clearly a lot of people did watch Mr Johnson last Monday evening and indeed it would be possible to place a brief interview onto the TV and Radio and also through the internet as a way of offering a more dynamic communication mechanism than by a letter, accepting of course that some people would not be able to see it.

I suspect that this will not be the last message we need to read or hear from the Government over the next six months and so perhaps someone else can consider the best way of doing it next time?