Now people in England will be able to exercise greater freedoms as lockdown constraints are relaxed, and despite the number of UK deaths exceeding 40,000, the variations allow exercising more than once a day, relaxing and sunbathing in parks and on beaches, and going for a drive.
Nevertheless, the vast majority of the measures forced on March 23 still apply, with Boris Johnson previously warning it was not the time to just end the lockdown this week.
You can now meet up with someone from another household in the park, as long as you keep a 2-metre distance from each other, and those who can’t work from home are also being asked to return to work.
Schools and all non-essential stores will remain closed until at least June, with pubs expected to be closed past July, and with the chance that the virus could run wild again, the penalty for breaching remaining rules has been nearly doubled to £100, up to a cap of £3,200.
And the overall message has shifted from ‘stay at home’ to ‘stay alert’, a situation that has provoked fear and rage, with many saying that the restricted easing has come far too soon, with England still seeing thousands of new COVID 19 infections and hundreds of losses per day.
And Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have all stopped short of easing the lockdown in the way Boris Johnson has, and it was previously warned by Keir Starmer that this fosters more questions than answers, and now we’re seeing England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland leaning in different directions.
Boris Johnson seems to be effectively telling millions of people to go back to work without a definite plan for safety or clear guidance as to how to get there without using public transport, and the Police Federation of England and Wales warned of excessive stress being laid on the officers it represents by the relaxation of rules.
What we require from Boris Johnson and the government now is clear and unambiguous messaging and direction, defining what precisely is expected of the people, and Boris Johnson has acted as an absolute clown, and his head is in a noose now, and I’m sure there would be numerous people out there that would be delighted to pull it tight.
And now it’s been suggested that our government are going to put our taxes up to cover the money they’re having to spend whilst the country is in lockdown.
But if this is true that the coronavirus originated in China, then can our government possibly sue China for all the pain and deaths they’ve caused all over the world? Plus if it’s a man-made virus like it’s been proposed, created to cull populations, then can’t they be charged with willful murder?
And every time Boris Johnson opens his mouth he contradicts himself and his aides are no better. We need people with good common sense addressing this COVID 19 pandemic.
We need definite effective rules and decisive leadership to get through this and Boris Johnson and his cohorts must stop confusing us all and get a handle on the situation, and now more than ever we need a robust government to help us.
And Londoners who will be using public transport won’t pay heed to the 2-metre rule, especially now that they’re working on a reduced service, and I honestly don’t know what the Prime Minister was thinking because evidently he’s had the virus and knows the risks, and the virus is still very much out there with precious few people wearing face protection.
It will be near on impossible to carry out the 2-metre rule on any public transport in London or anywhere else, and I’ve noticed they say to use a face covering, not a mask because masks are extremely difficult to get, yet other more impoverished countries than us are giving them out free, the United Kingdom, on the other hand, get ripped off and have to wait a month to buy them on the internet.
And elsewhere in the country, there wasn’t a parking space to be seen on the seafront, and the ice cream man was out, and numerous people had to shuffle past people to get to work, and Boris Johnson had the temerity to say stay alert, perhaps we should report all coughing to the intelligence services.
And watch this space, everywhere will be packed out now, but this easing has come way too early and the numbers will go through the roof, and then Boris Johnson can say back to lockdown and that it’s our fault and that we should have stayed alert.