This week I went to the office for the first time in six months, and perhaps the last time in six months. On the train home, I confronted a man who wasn’t wearing a mask. It didn’t go brilliantly. He claimed to be exempt, I didn’t believe him because he hadn’t respected social distancing.

I ended up posting a photo of him on Twitter, then deleting it. In retrospect, I should have acted differently.

Britain is lagging behind on masks. In Japan, people with colds wore masks long before Covid-19. In Rome, you’re stopped if you try to go on the metro or into a supermarket without a mask. In Paris, you’re meant to wear a mask whenever you’re in public unless you’re exercising (or smoking). Even some visitors from the US, where mask-wearing is ideological and regional, can be surprised by how few are worn in the UK.