So far, in this national nightmare, Wisbech and the Fens seem to have benefited from something that is a hindrance in normal times. We are an insular and untrustworthy lot, and the outside world largely leaves us to our own devices (and vice-versa). The result is that we are on the lower end of the Covid-19 statistics, but I suggest that this is all about to change.

I write this sitting in my comfortable home, albeit going stir-crazy with the isolation from my family, but with access to television, radio and – for better or for worse – the endless stream of misinformation, rumour and daft theories carried by the internet. I can understand what I an hearing and seeing, even if I do not believe all of it. What, though, would it be like if I were living in, say, Sofia, with hardly a word of Bulgarian or Russian, and sharing a house with ten other people? Would I have the first idea what is going on? How would ‘social distancing’ work?

Yesterday, a delightful young chap, let’s call him Dimitri, sent me a text. He comes from Bratislava, and was a regular at my weekly English lessons at the Rosmini Centre. He asked me if the class was running that evening. Two weeks earlier, I had explained to the class, with the help of some Russian speakers, that we would have to stop the lessons for the time being, for the sake of everyone’s health. Now Dimitri, who is otherwise perfectly intelligent and capable, clearly had no idea of what is going on, due entirely to the language problem.

How many more Dimitris are out there, baffled by what is going on, still meeting up with their mates, still shaking hands and going about their normal business? I know the Rosmini Centre has done its best to spread the word, with staff sitting on the their phones, hoping to explain – in Lithuanian, Russian, Polish, Bulgarian or whatever – that these are serious times.

Social media tells me that the town is still full of groups of immigrants, happily socialising and carrying on as if nothing untoward were happening. Who is taking responsibility for this? Are there any “community leaders” working to get the message out, in whatever language is needed, that the sky is about to fall in?

For years Wisbech landlords have crammed people into unsuitable accommodation while the £ signs whirr endlessly behind their eyelids, counting only the monthly rent receipts and not the cost in human misery. 'Chickens coming home to roost' is a bland expression. Chickens are silly, harmless creatures, but what is about to happen in Wisbech over the next couple of months is neither silly nor harmless. Pray to whichever God you believe in that I am wrong.

We are witnessing, here in Wisbech, as elsewhere in the country, the worst outbreak of mass selfishness that I have seen in my lifetime. I voted enthusiastically for this government in December 2019, and it pains me to say that their laissez-faire attitude over the food supply crisis is a deplorable miscalculation. Supermarket shelves stripped bare, on-line ordering sites suspended, or mostly out of stock, and a crisis that is turning into a disaster.

The cynicism of the supermarkets and smaller retailers is astonishing. Their sales figures must be going through the roof and their profits reaching levels never previously dreamt of. They have simply sat on their hands, for the most part, and let customers buy whatever they want. Where they have tried to impose limits, they have been unable to control the disgusting individuals who have sent separate family members - sometimes children - into the shops with separate trolleys or baskets.

As for the generous offer from the supermarkets to have special 'Happy Hours' for the elderly and vulnerable - what a complete and utter sham! The elderly and vulnerable are self-isolating, or so we should hope, so how on God's earth are they to trot down to TESCO for an hour rubbing shoulders with other potential victims.

I sincerely hope that the government's lack of action is ignorance of how the real world operates, and not some horrific scheme to boost company profits and woo supermarket shareholders. There are isolated instances of individuals doing their best to help others, but the only possible conclusion to draw from the last ten days or so, is a stark one. It is, sadly this, that our society has become corrupt and is rotting from within, due to horrifying levels of selfishness, greed and malice.

What do I want to see? I want nothing less than some kind of martial law imposed by the government, and to hell with civil liberties and human rights. The supermarkets should be compelled to operate a rationing system, and if that involves some kind of massive registration of customers, then so be it. I want to see police and soldiers at checkouts, and I want the vermin who are causing this crisis to be under no illusion that they will be forced to comply, and if that means arrests and criminal charges, then bring it on.