Actions, as it turns out, do speak louder than words.

Last week's poll around our view of Covid is backed up by; 1) another poll and 2) more importantly, real life.

Last week's poll had 65 percent of us wanting all restrictions gone. That's a fairly large majority.

This week's poll has fewer and fewer of us adhering to the so called rules.

Those willing to use a mask - down 11 points.

Those willing to isolate - down 12.

RAT use down three and reporting a rat result is down 27 percent.

People see this for what it is and are acting accordingly, but in the real world it's even starker.

I went to the mall and I hardly ever go to the mall. No one, and I mean no one, in the mall was wearing a mask and I felt reassured about that.

Polls and stats are one thing but the real world is another. In the shop itself inside the mall, the ratio went up. Now this is a bit of grandmother research but roughly it went up by about a third of people wearing a mask.

But you can easily say the majority weren't wearing one and this was a major department store.

All the staff had them on but very few of the customers which made me even more reassured.

Having started what was clearly a research project into mask wearing, I monitored use on the way home.

It seems we are in camps. Because once outside, hardly anyone was wearing a mask, but those who left the shop and left the mall kept their masks on - i.e. they wore them all the time.

And in wandering down the street you see them; a combination of the full mask wearer and the half mask wearer. You know, the one that still has it on despite the fact it has slipped down and doesn’t work.

Now, I am not anti-mask, if you want to wear a mask wear one.

But I am a realist and Covid is no longer a ‘thing’.

It’s a virus we might catch like a cold or the flu. We have at last, thank God, got to that point. It is clear the rules are no longer being followed; the surveys show it and the real world shows it even more.

The Government of course should have read all of this. We have left them behind and I assume at sometime between now and Christmas they’ll read their own survey and work this out.