Claims by a national newspaper that in less than a month its campaign to have a memorial to those who died in the pandemic has raised over two million pounds, also raises a number of questions.

The first is that is it ethical to use the deaths of thousands to increase its circulation? Campaigns to clean up the countryside or reduce salt and sugar in foods are one thing, an emotive subject like the loss of life is totally different.

The second question is, if there is to be a memorial for victims of Covid-19, why not also one for the thousands who every year tragically die of cancer or in road accidents?

Is it that Covid-19 deaths are considered to be more important than others? If we are expected to remember those loved ones in our hearts, surely the same should apply to Covid deaths.

The memorial’s installation ceremony will be attended by the great and good in all their finery and yield even more publicity for the newspaper, but afterwards, what then?

Once the fanfare has faded away it will just become part of the fabric of St Paul’s Cathedral and will require regular expensive maintenance. It is not known how long the virus will be with us, indeed some experts predict that it will keep recurring, so would it not be common sense to use the money raised for the memorial to buy ventilators?

Not a virtue signaller