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Good morning. On Monday, the Prime Minister outlined the plans for the complete removal in England of the various lockdown restrictions that have dominated life for the past 16 months. Here in Wales and other parts of the UK, there’ll be a different timetable.

This marks a return to almost normality and will be welcomed by most people and businesses in England. But, the PM was clear that Covid is still with us; and although the legal restrictions are being lifted, we’re being asked to exercise ‘personal responsibility’ – particularly in the ongoing use of facemasks in appropriate situations.

Many Hindu teachers would agree that linking freedom with personal responsibility is reasonable. It’s the mainstay of the legal system in an open society. It even underpins the Hindu concept of karma. In many Vedic texts, we are encouraged to be fully established in the welfare of others as the qualification for embarking on whatever personal ambitions we have set for ourselves.

So, how do I gauge when and where to don a facemask? The answer’s easy if I’m alone in a train or if it’s packed to the gills. The in-between situations are trickier - like one of those paradoxes beloved of Greek philosophers. If you remove passengers one by one from a train carriage, at what point is it socially acceptable to take off your mask? However, the calculation isn’t simply about quantity. There may be specific vulnerable individuals who require additional consideration from us. Conversely, those reliant on lip-reading would prefer there’s nothing covering our mouths.

Being asked to employ personal responsibility without definitive guidelines raises serious moral challenges. This isn’t assessing risk for ourselves – like engaging in some extreme sport. I have to decide what to do to protect those around me. Many of us may be comfortable with this obligation. But, we will also need to live with the fact that others may take a different view. The danger is that facemasks become the new totem of division in our society? Its absence or presence denoting our tribal identity either as libertarian or communitarian. Will we be quick to judge each other’s social and moral sensibilities? And, as the Mahabharat warns, from these seeds of censure and disagreement, might we cultivate anger and enmity?

It’s likely we will each feel invested in whatever approach we adopt towards the opening up of society. That conviction may become our truth. Another text from the Mahabharat tells us that Truth is better than untruth; and kindness is better than cruelty. That’s obvious, it says – but if you have to choose between being right or being kind – be kind.

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