For my son’s 16 birthday, his Mum and I took him to see “Don’t Look Up” (which is rather good, by the way). The multiplex cinema was enforcing a strict masks-at-all-times policy.

We were directed to Screen 4, which seated maybe 100 people across seven rows. I was surprised to see the front four rows entirely empty, while the booking system had crammed us all close-up together in the rear three rows. Huh?

After the movie had finished, I sought out the manager, and asked her why, in this time of a supposed pandemic, when social distancing has been drummed into us from the very start, did you cram us all into the rear three rows? Her answer – the government has told them that they don’t need to apply social distancing to their seating arrangements “at the moment”.

She fully expects this to change back again at any time. And she fully accepted that insisting on masks while dropping social distancing makes no effing sense at all.

Damon Leigh