If in Dowd

Green usually means go, right? When the traffic lights turn green it signals the driver to proceed. But no, said our government, green means only proceed in essential circumstances. Such choices of language in the government's communication of the so-called green list  made the ensuing confusion  entirely predictable. From Thursday of last week, the travel advice was changed, permitting travel to green list countries provided "normal precautions" were taken. This was a sensible move. Statistically-speaking you are less likely to have COVID-19 in countries such as Greece, Lithiuania and Malta than in Ireland. I sense that Leo Varakdar in his new position as Tanaiste is experiencing a degree of schadenfreude, peering over at the challenges ahead of the older-but-not-necessarily-wiser Taoiseach Michael Martin. In spite of the catastrophic levels of nursing home deaths , he was widely considered to have provided the strong and stable leadership required to steer Ireland th