The buffoon who happens to be our Prime Minister set out his plan for ending lockdown in his update today.
The headline is that IF everything goes well that ‘at least some’ of the hospitality industry could be allowed to open as soon as July. There are, however, a lot of checkpoints to pass before this can happen.
Using graphics seemingly designed by an out of work primary school teacher, he explained the plans to us as if we were as idiotic as his government.
First up from Wednesday you can go out as many times as you want, you can sit in parks, you can play sports and go for a drive but only with those you live with still. Some people, such as construction workers, will also be allowed to go back to work (not hospitality workers) from tomorrow.
A five (they seem to love the number five over at No. 10) warning level type system, called the Covid Alert System, is being put in place. 5 means we’re fucked, 1 means there are no cases left in the UK. It’s used by combining the now famous R rate with the number of coronavirus cases. We are currently at number 4 and heading towards 3.
If this continues to drop then on June 1st there will be another relaxing of the lockdown restrictions including the opening of some shops and primary schools.
If this continues to work and the number on the Covid Alert System continues to drop then on July 1st some of the hospitality industry and other public places will be able to reopen.
Whilst this is a lot earlier than most ‘experts’ were expecting there are a lot of ‘Ifs’ along with it. The biggest one being ‘if the numbers support it’, and we have no idea what will happen over the coming weeks. He also mentioned that there would be social distancing still in place within the hospitality industry and a lot of bars will find it exceptionally hard to conform with social distancing and have room for enough punters in to make it financially worth reopening.
So whilst the headline looks great for the hospitality industry there are a hell of a lot of unknowns that all have to go our way for it to happen as soon as July 1st. We certainly wouldn’t bet on a mass opening of bars at the beginning of July.
He will be blithering his way through parliament tomorrow and then hosting the update in the afternoon where he will be ignoring the questions asked by the journalists and answering the questions he thinks they should have asked.
If there is any more news from that we will of course be letting you know.