SO here we are, looking down the barrel of a second national lockdown.

It feels like the government learned nothing from those dreadful months in the spring, and the tragic loss of life.

Be in no doubt now, this is serious and we are facing a repeat of the first wave.

It has always been the reality that as cases go up, hospitalisations go up, then the deaths happen. Denying that reality, as some have, costs lives.

We have reached this point through complacency of those who did not take it seriously enough.

This has always been a war against a deadly virus yet as a Second World War generation suffered for nearly six years, too many gave up within six months.

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But they have only followed the lead of a government who did not keep their eye on the ball and were also complacent.

Ministers said it was time to go out once again, with a world beating test, track and trace system there as the safety net to get us through.

We are now trying to play catch up on testing. But as the county council admitted this week our cases data here will be flawed when some did not get a test.

Hopefully it is not too late, because we need that system working.

In the first wave thousands would have been saved if we would have started lockdown earlier.

We would also then have been able to relax lockdown measures earlier, which doesn't impact the economy as hard.

This time the government must not be slow to act.

If a national lockdown has to happen this time don't wait, be decisive and do the right thing at the right time.