SIR: We are told that the Government follows the science and the advice of the Sage committee. What the public sees are decisions that seem to be based on wild forecasts by Imperial College and forecasts, now called scenarios, from Sage.

Perhaps the Cabinet should examine the figures of total deaths in England and Wales as published by the Office of National Statistics on www.ons.gov.uk. There was a large increase in deaths in 2020 v 2019 in March and May with a huge spike in April, which justify the first lockdown, but since then total deaths were lower in July and August, higher in Sept by 81 deaths a day out of a population of 60,000,000. In the latest published figures for October to the 23rd, the increase over last year was 51 per day.

I appreciate that Covid-19 is a horrible disease, but as it is now better understood, is it worth shutting down the economy and ruining livelihoods for a second time when monthly death rates are around the norm?

Donald Black,

Sarum Close,

Winchester