I can’t watch my pregnant daughter struggle for food during this coronavirus crisis – we all deserve better than this

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The shelves of my local Co-op have virtually been stripped bare. This morning, my daughter, who is pregnant and has a two-year-old son to look after, was told with no notice whatsoever that Tesco was cancelling her online order booked for today. Customer services are unavailable and she is desperate, as must be the many decent people in this country who took the prime minister at his word and bought, at the time, only what they needed. The good are now being cruelly punished, and yet the government seems to be doing very little. To suggest there is plenty of food available is not the case for me, my daughter and for many like her. It is not good enough.

I believe it is now time for a formal system of national rationing, as in wartime. A decisive leader would have brought this in a long time earlier; it is perhaps too late for some, but for others, it could be their saving.

Tim Montagnon
Rutland

I live in a household of three adults. Pasta and rice are eaten at least four times a week, however, I have been unable to buy either for two weeks.

Today in my local supermarket the shelves are empty of meat, eggs, milk, pasta, rice, tinned soup, tinned tuna, etc.

Why would you freeze milk when cows need to be milked twice a day?

I am ashamed to be British, as they all panic buy thinking, “me, me, me”. At the earliest opportunity, I will leave. Goodbye, so long, and I hope your freezers break down.

Susan Powell
Hereford

School closures

In the light of the indefinite closure of most schools, Boris Johnson has pledged that all children missing key exams will be treated fairly to get the qualifications they deserve. Our experience tells me this will not happen.

Relying on teachers to decide grades will not result in a fair system. Both my children were told they were stupid by their primary teachers and actively discouraged from sitting maths and science highers by some of their secondary teachers. Both went on, against teachers' advice, to go on to achieve top-rated masters degrees in science and engineering. Contrast this with the large percentage of pupils from grammar and private schools who do not achieve their predicted A-level results.

G Forward
Stirling

There are opportunities in every crisis. Why not use this enforced window to push the university year to January and going forward have a system that allows students to apply in the Autumn once they have their grades? This would stop the lottery heartache and gaming in the current system.

Simon Watson
Worcester

Johnson's leadership

Further to Tom Peck’s sketch on Thursday, why are Boris Johnson's daily briefings to the press always presented to a packed gathering with no hint of social distancing?

Another example of “do as I say...”, any chance Johnson could be persuaded to look at what is happening at similar events in Dublin? Or indeed, look at the Taoiseach’s address to the nation on national television on Tuesday night? That’s how a leader behaves in a crisis.

Dermot O’Neill
London N12

Freedom of movement

Perhaps when the current crisis is over, the government and its pro-Brexit supporters will begin to recognise that freedom of movement is not such a bad thing after all.

Matthew Taylor
Address not supplied

The Whitty-Grayling connection

I’d feel a lot more confident about the government’s varying strategy for combatting the Covid-19 virus if chief medical officer Chris Whitty didn’t appear to be the identical twin brother of Chris Grayling.

Eddie Dougall
Bury St Edmunds