There's a virus sweeping the nation that seems even more prevalent than Covid-19.

And its hot spots seem to be Westminster, Whitehall and Downing Street!

No wonder when it came out that former Health Secretary Matt Hancock had been having an affair with an aide, our MPs were as silent as stone.

Last weekend Nub News asked Alicia Kearns (Rutland) and Gareth Davies (Grantham and Stamford) for a comment about whether Hancock should go.

There was no response, but both did put out a comment afterwards welcoming the appointment of Sajid Javid as his replacement.

I guess you can hardly blame them, the pair have loyally supported this government through thick and thin and barely wavering a droplet over Covid-19.

I can imagine they were cringing with embarrassment and boiling with rage when the Hancock story broke.

Here's a man who created and imposed the laws that you could not see granny, your mates, and yes, even casual sex was banned! And what was he getting up to? Certainly not what he preached and demanded and got the police to enforce.

Last year, when government scientist Neil Ferguson helped persuade Boris Johnson to impose lockdown, the scientist was later exposed for 'trysts' with his own lover and Matt Hancock said Dr Ferguson was right to resign from the SAGE group of scientists.

Yes, when it comes to hypocrisy, Matt Hancock is in a league of his own, worthy of his own variant, as strong as Delta or any other form of Covid-19.

You may know the journalist Richard Littlejohn, who writes columns in the Daily Mail. He often uses the line for some of his most bizarre and hilarious tales "You could not make it up."

Think about it. Here is Hancock, the centre of rules and regulations that have gone into the most intimate part of our lives, the nooks and crannies of everyday business, simply flouting them. And when he was caught, he asked for privacy! It is the ultimate of hypocrisy. And you could not make it up!

No wonder then, the next day, just as there was some breakage of lockdown following the time when Dominic Cummins drove to Barnard Castle to 'test his eyesight', there has followed reduced compliance.

I was in the supermarket last Sunday, one of the classier ones, that's scrupulously clean, where mask wearing and other rules have been rigorously enforced, with door greeters even wiping your shopping baskets and trolleys!

But last week I counted three, yes three customers, without a mask on. I know there are exemptions for those who find wearing them extremely stressful, but after the Hancock affair, perhaps more and more people find mask wearing extremely stressful.

There was a 50-something man and his mother and a 30-something with dreadlocks.

"The peasants are revolting," I thought, "perhaps the sheeple are waking up" and keen to take back our freedom government has stolen from us. As I approached the checkout, I saw the lad with dreadlocks been served and I could make out the word 'hypocrisy' coming from the lady behind the till.

Her mask was below her chin, as they were with several other staff, and one manager behind a desk had no mask on at all. Was this the start of a popular uprising?

No wonder, several days later, South Kesteven District Council issued a statement reminding businesses of their responsibilities when it came to mask wearing and taking customer details. I doubt they'd know of this retailer but mindful of the national situation no doubt thought issuing such a statement would have value.

But of course, Matt Hancock is not the only hypocrite in Government. It is barely a few weeks since the great and the good all congregated in Cornwall for the G7 summit.

The world leaders had flown in without any quarantine and after they posed socially distanced for the cameras, in other shots they enjoyed a fabulous BBQ get together and Emmanuel Macron of France could hardly get his hands off US president Joe Biden.

More recently we have heard how football officials from UEFA can visit Britain and they need not quarantine either. The government has also allowed foreign bosses to be exempt too, to give business a much-needed boost. And Ascot, Wimbledon, etc, anything goes!

Of course, it's not just the powers that be that are hypocritical, Labour is too. Lucy Powell MP this week slammed the government over the health and wealth inequalities fuelled by lockdown. But she and her party all voted for the lockdown that caused this!

Over in Brussels, our former masters have announced that the European Union will make itself climate neutral by 2050, starting with a 55% emissions cut by 2030.

Yet, the EU budget for private jets for senior EU commissioners and parliamentarians rose by 50% to €10.7million in the past five years.

As I said recently, "rules are for little people!"

Environmental claims are also prone to catching people out with hypocritical double standards. I am sure you are familiar with the term 'green-washing' when large corporates claim to be 'greener' than they actually are.

So it was quite gobsmacking recently when ITN News revealed that Amazon was dumping so much new and unsold products from its warehouses, when the discarded laptops, for example, could easily be used by the less well-off in our schools.

And it is Amazon of all the companies that makes such a song and dance in its tv commercials about the environment and climate change.

Of course, what can you expect?

June was Pride Month and many large corporates eagerly signalled their virtue by flying the rainbow flag. Except for the many who also had divisions serving the Middle East, and rainbows could not be seen!

Yes, when it comes to hypocrisy, we certainly seem to have a global pandemic!

The challenge is, how can we vaccinate ourselves against it?

• If you like lively opinion and a round-up of the week's news affecting Grantham, please subscribe to our FREE weekly newsletter, which comes out on a Friday. To do so, click on the coloured box at the top of the webpage.