I do feel the story has moved on a little from what he did to the intensity of the defences rolled out to defend him. There cannot be many senior ministers officers left who have not leapt to his defence. But so many of these are so weak, you wonder why they think it wise.

"What would you have done?" - Since there are some 257,154 cases now, there are some 257,154 answers to that question, and probably at least one thousand of a couple with a young child where one parent is positive: they can tell him exactly what they did, and I suggest very few of them involved a 500 mile round trip.

"Protecting ones family is what every good parent does." True. But then you ask whether driving 250 miles to see your vulnerable parents the best way of protecting them. And since this government loves war time analogies, evacuating the child and staying in London yourself is a strategy that they could have tried.