India, Sept. 4 -- Can this really be happening? The British are famously - and proudly - the most difficult people in the world to terrorise or bully. The population that stood with tireless phlegm and humour against relentless bombardment, that made its historical mark with an unflinching rationality which never permits hysteria to sweep the public discourse - must now be chivied into leaving the confines of their own homes or the safe harbours of their immediate neighbourhoods.

And the most perplexing thing of all is that this is the response of most of the Western world. They, who have always stood up for their personal liberties, are now willingly covering at home at the thought of an invisible virus getting them. It is like the Boge...