If Ann was a taker of tranquilisers (assuredly she is not despite being married to me), she would devour such before viewing television news bulletins if I am to be found lurking anywhere in the vicinity.

For my presence can – without warning – turn her relaxing activity into a ‘batten down the hatches’ experience, as I am a volatile, vituperative, outraged, verbose, unforgiving and unaccepting man when it comes to so very many items which are thrust before us by news presenters – not their fault, of course, as they are only doing their jobs.

My eruptions regarding events when reported by the media are assuredly not few; not a week will pass without me being furious about something which a news programme has served up to us. Indeed most seven-day periods will bring about several explosions of wrath and indignation on my part – any island in the world that had a volcano which exploded as often as I do when confronted with national and often world events, would be uninhabitable.

My latest spewing of the malign lava of indignation and frustration took place very recently when watching the lunchtime bulletin on the BBC. The item of information was clearly not seen as being one of major importance; indeed it came after a report on the successful re-floating of a beached whale somewhere on our coastline; thus the narrative regarding the improved fortunes of a sea creature was judged to be of higher status and, to viewers, of greater interest than a statistical report which had reached the news desk.

In a tone which had about it no more gravity or intensity than he would use if giving a routine weather forecast, our presenter gave the latest unemployment figures for the UK. For a few seconds I sat stunned; did I hear the figures correctly? Our hearing not being what it was we always put the sub-titles on; the numbers spread themselves across the bottom of the screen; I was not deceived in what I thought the announcer had uttered. For he had stated that the number of men and women registered as being without work – thus presumably receiving state benefits of some kind – ran into millions.

I did a ‘John McEnroe’ – that gifted, but at times ill-tempered tennis star who would, when he felt unfairly treated, rail against the umpire: ‘You cannot be serious.’ Thus did I shout at the TV newsreader – who (not for the first time) took no notice; Ann took some but not a lot – she was used to me waging verbal war on something or other.

The reason for my fury, though, was simple enough; the first part of the national news was taken up with varying, disturbing, indeed alarming stories of shortages of staff and personnel that was bringing, almost, the nation to a standstill.

We had been shown footage of service stations running dry due to a chronic shortage of tanker drivers; likewise experts had been drafted in to lament the massive shortfall in the number of HGV drivers nationwide whose services are crucial when it comes to keeping retailers, builders merchants and supermarkets well stocked.

As to the last, testimony was produced of bare shelves, the result of fresh products being left to rot in the fields because there was no labour available to harvest such; also stocks of pork and other meats were much depleted as abattoirs did not have sufficient qualified staff to handle the animals; thus farmers were forced to destroy them. Not their fault, of course, but in a world where so many go hungry, surely an abomination.

Add to this the on-going shortage of skilled staff in care and nursing homes and the dearth of qualified tradespeople to help our construction industry deliver on its crucial role of building affordable homes for our young people to live in and the paradox had me, almost, frothing at the mouth.

What or who is to blame for this? Clearly the curse of Covid looms large – its shadow darkens the lives of all worldwide and issues relating to the global supply chain can to some extent be laid at its door. To blame it all on Covid though would be to cover up a palpable lack of foresight across both government and industry in the UK. Here Boris and his team have been lamentably tardy when it comes to planning for the future, especially with Brexit a significant factor in employment issues.

Others too must now step up to the mark; there has been, apparently, a shortage of HGV drivers for years – why have big companies not trained up men and women to enhance the numbers; after all, it’s not the government’s job to recruit and train staff. Builders should be taking on apprentices, care homes plus those in the leisure and hospitality arenas and growers who need crops to be gathered, should be paying higher wages and ensuring better conditions for employees. There is a mighty, restless army of folk unemployed and a multitude of job vacancies to be filled; if it’s beyond the ‘wit of man’ to reconcile the two, then lunatics assuredly have ‘taken over the asylum’!