I write regarding the Christmas Rules. As an extended family of 13 living in eight households altogether, we - the grandparents – have been well and truly let down by Boris (aka The Grinch).

After years of celebrating Christmas together, we are now banned from spending time with our extended family, after a year of very limited contact.

We are both in our 82nd year, the age group where ‘Old Nick’ can come calling any time, and realistically this could be our last chance to get together.

Boris has deliberately made it three households to restrict thousands of grandparents from attending family get-togethers – the government seem determined to spoil our few pleasures and simultaneously destroy the hospitality sector.

Thank God for the vaccines on the horizon.

One final point: experts reckon that for 90 per cent of people, Covid is just a glorified flu, yet a recent survey showed 52 per cent of people preferred being locked down. We have become a nation of snowflakes and scaredy cats!

Pete Hull, Askham Grove, Acomb