If the phrase 'Be prepared' rings any bells, your time in the Girl Guides or the Boy Scouts was not spent in vain.

With the potential for a winter lockdown not ruled out, uncertainty appears to dominate as we head towards the festive season.

However, with a little bit of experience now on our side, making sure our business is prepared for what could be the second winter of our discontent would be a smart move.

As we wipe the dust from the heater panel, ensuring internal cold-water pipes are lagged may turn out to be a smart move if we are all forced to close for a month or two and then face a cold snap.

Empty business premises in the middle of winter that would normally be warm and occupied can be a risky prospect. It’s not something you would normally even contemplate but prevention is better than cure, and definitely more preferable than a soaking wet carpet.

None of the above is anything we really want to think about, but that’s just the point, it’s the decisions and plans we don’t want to think about that could turn out to be the right ones - ensuring that we aren’t spending months on the phone arguing with insurance companies, who following recent court rulings will no doubt be very keen to avoid paying out on a claim.

So maybe you feel as though my thoughts and views on the matter are just scaremongering and an excuse for an editorial, but if at Christmas 2019 I had told you that within four months the country would be shut, by order of the Peaky Blinders - oops! sorry, by order of the Government, I suspect that it would have taken me a while to take off the straight jacket placed upon me by those that deemed me to be barking mad!

Even if you didn’t spend time in the Girl Guides or Boy Scouts, to be prepared on this occasion may not be such a bad thing.