Frantic

It's been a hectic 7½ days. Starting at about tea time last Saturday we've had Hallowe'en, Boris announcing Lockdown 2.0, an election in America, an outlawed bonfire night, a result in America, and Remembrance Day.

And now that we have finished gouging-out pumpkins, setting off fireworks and lest-we-forgetting, we can at last get on with the serious business of lockdown 2.0.
Businesses and venues which must close
- Non-essential retail, such as clothing and homeware stores, vehicle showrooms (other than for rental), betting shops, tailors, tobacco and vape shops, electronic goods and mobile phone shops, and market stalls selling non-essential goods. These venues can continue to be able to operate click-and-collect (where goods are pre-ordered and collected off the premises) and delivery services
- Places of worship, apart from for the purposes of independent prayer, for funerals or funeral commemorative events, to broadcast an act of worship, to provide essential voluntary services or urgent public support services, for registered childcare, and to host permitted gatherings.

Businesses and venues which can remain open
- Essential retail such as food shops, supermarkets, pharmacies, garden centres, hardware stores, building merchants and off-licences.

That is correct; you may not attend a congregational service at a place of worship for the sake of your spiritual well-being but garden centres can open because that is good for your mental health.

That's right, once again the government has accidentally forgotten that not everyone has access to a private garden.

As you can see, in Chatham, “Click & Collect” means old-fashioned shopping – not touching the goods but telling the shopkeeper which items of stock take your fancy.