This 'pingdemic' is getting a bit much, isn't it?

Myself and Mrs Taylor were recently pinged by the NHS app and forced to go into self-isolation.

This was variously annoying and surprising, not least as we are ghouls and don't have bodies for viruses to muck around with. Who'd have guessed that Bluetooth is so powerful it can reach out to the spirit world?

During my enforced idleness, I had more time than usual to read through the editor's newshunting trophies. And I must admit, it seems to me that Hadleigh is suffering more from a 'sindemic' than from the aforementioned 'pingdemic'.

We are all sinners. I confess to being the worst offender. If there was a sin app, then mine would be going off with such rapidity that it would shriek continuously like a bat having its wings pulled apart (ah the joys of sixteenth century 'down time').

Fundamentally, sin is bad thoughts and actions that separate us from God and hurt ourselves and others. The way to deal with sin in any meaningful way is to acknowledge we've been at fault and seek forgiveness.

In other words, 'fess up and cough up an apology, brothers and sisters!

Recently, public figures among our community have shown variously how to do this and, sadly more often than not, how not to.

Top blessings go to Maritime Minns. Angela Wiltshire, Keir Starmer's little local helper and election-losing triathlete (town, district and county) revealed the 'curt' (please spellcheck that three times as well, editor) replies she'd received from Hadleigh Town Council to various queries she'd raised.

'Curt' (ditto) is putting it mildly. Even a Russian chatbot would have come across as more amenable. Indeed, some of us are beginning to think that the council is actually run by and for Vladimir Putin, so poor is it in dealing fairly and transparently with many of the issues before it.

Yet, Mayor Maritime went all textbook and without casting around for various limp excuses, accepted the Council was at fault and apologised.

Higher up the sin-pinging register is "Madame de Pompadour" Penny Cook, chair of the Hadleigh Grand Feoffment Charity and the person ultimately responsible for the care of those elderly citizens who reside in the almshouses along George Street.

Now, I do know that some of the folks living there are pretty happy with the services they have received from the Feoff', as nobody calls it. But as Hadleigh Nub News has reported over many months, more again are frustrated by longstanding problems with damp, leaks and poor maintenance.

The response of de Pompadour has been dismissive at best, refusing to meet with residents and even turning down repeated requests for a friendly chit-chat with this site's benign editor. She claims, in spite of on-the-record comments that "no one had a bad word to say about things." No hint of a soz, there.

After you the deluge, quite literally, uh Madame?

Which brings me onto the Hadleigh equivalent of the Chuckle Brothers, namely the duelling foodbank supremos, Neil Bevis and Angela Gregg.

I must admit that, unlike much of town opinion, I'm prayerfully agnostic as to the relative merits of each organisation or to quote a Texan saying "I don't have a dog in that fight".

In October last year, Mr Bevis posted up for a considerable length of time on one of the many Facebook groups he administers a series of very detailed and serious allegations about Ms Gregg and the ways she apparently managed her foodbank.

A subsequent police investigation decided that Ms Gregg had no case to answer and that no further action would be taken.

Her response was to pen a pretty neutral statement (although rumours abound that the first draft was a little more spicy than the final cut). I must admit to being unaware if Mr Bevis took the trouble to, thereafter, apologise. I rather hope that he did.

Saying sorry is tough, but it is essential for all parties to draw the proverbial horizontal underneath and get on with the, otherwise, good work in which they are both engaged, alebit competitively.

I'm really looking forward to Mr Bevis sending the editor evidence that he has done just that.

This case also underlines the potentially sinful cost of posting up stuff on social media that is later proven to be inaccurate. It's not just reputations that suffer, but also bank balances: a timely reminder, in other words, that you may be in accord with Zuckerburg's community standards, but might fall foul of the good ol' English crime of defamation.

More on crime and punishment in my next column. Now, my sin apps gone beserk. Heaven know's why......