This morning I find myself on a train speeding northwards to attend a family funeral.

First time I’ve been on one since the pandemic: comfortable, quiet and crowded.

I seem to be the only one heeding advice to wear a face mask.

I tested negative this morning using one of my few remaining free NHS tests; not quite sure whether I’m protecting others or myself! Madness to be abandoning free tests when cases are spiking.

Read more: Living with Covid plan - All the changes coming in from April 1

We’ve been decimated at work, members of my team working at home after a positive test to protect others; returning only after two consecutive days’ negative results.

All were triple vaccinated. Some had mild symptoms; others were fatigued; one was in intensive care. Stopping free tests is crazy.

If shaking the magic money tree can deliver 5p off a litre of petrol; it can deliver free tests.

The first duty of government is to protect its citizens, not to make it cheaper for those who can afford it, to drive their cars.

This latest folly follows hard on the heels of last week’s failure by Chancellor Sunak to do anything to alleviate the plight of millions dependent on benefits from the cost of living crisis: the disabled so often denied the opportunity to work no matter how willing, the elderly eking out an existence on the state pension, those caring at home for others, the chronically sick.

The Government’s ‘make work pay’ dogma gave modest tax relief for those who claim universal credit whilst working whilst blatantly and overtly abandoning millions unable to work whose benefits increase tomorrow by less than half the rate of inflation.

While MPs pay rises by over £180 a month, more children will grow up in poverty; more older people will die of cold and the health, wellbeing and quality of life for the disabled, drastically curtailed through the pandemic, will be further imperilled.

Small wonder the Chancellor’s Spring statement photo op last week backfired.

There he was, the wealthiest Member of Parliament, filling up a car he’d borrowed from a supermarket worker specially for the occasion, confused about how to use a debit card.

Confirmation, as if any were needed, of a government woefully out of touch with the daily lives of so many of its citizens, teasing backbenchers with promises of a future cut in income tax, whilst fleecing workers and the poor.

Meanwhile, last Friday, drowned by the noise of war, the government’s Office for Budget Responsibility announced that Britain had ‘missed out on most of the post-pandemic global economic recovery’ citing Brexit as a key factor: our exports fell by 14 per cent compared to pre-pandemic levels while the global average rose by over eight.

So that’s why our taxes are rising and benefits falling more sharply than our competitors.

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