CLEAR messaging.

In a national emergency, such a pandemic, it is crucial.

But I'd argue what we have seen for weeks - when we have needed it most - has been far from clear messaging.

The closest we got to easy to follow messages was in lockdown. 'Stay at home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives', and 'only go out for an essential journeys' - people understood that and guess what, it worked.

Without the sacrifices of millions who followed that advice for weeks (though not the man who helped write the rules), we would not be where we are today.

Things went downhill after 'Stay Alert, Control the Virus, Save Lives' launched, and yes after the Dominic Cummings saga that damaged the government's effectiveness to get people to follow its instructions anyway.

I wrote a couple of months ago I feared a second wave was inevitable as it appeared the government was moving too fast out of lockdown and, so far, I have never been so happy to have been proved wrong.

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But the danger now is complacency, and this is where we return to the importance of clear messaging once again.

Ask yourself this - are you 100 per cent certain what you should be doing right now?

In all honesty, do you understand social bubbles, where you can meet, how many people are allowed?

Or have you basically given up trying to understand it. To be clear this is no criticism if you have - it is hard keeping up.

The Prime Minister and his ministers like to talk of "British common sense", but you have to question whether the advice we do get is making sense anyway.

For example, on mask wearing, what makes no sense is that the current guidance appears to be:

"You can leave your home without a mask on, but then you need to put it on if you pop into a shop (but you don't have to until Friday because it takes nearly a fortnight to buy one, presumable).

"You can take it off when you leave a shop. But remember to put it back on when you get on a bus or train, but take it off when you sit in an office all day (if you are in an office job and the office is open, but you can work for home, or not, depending what your employer says)."

If anything demonstrated messaging needs to be improved and better explained, it's that.