Boris Johnson is privatising responsibility for the problems caused by his Christmas plan to lift restrictions while cases are rising
From Saturday, two-thirds of England will be in tier 3, the most severe category of the UK government’s Covid restrictions. This change, announced by the health secretary, Matt Hancock, on Thursday, is the product of two contradictory things. The first is that coronavirus cases are rising fast in the south-east and east of England, while case numbers also remain high in much of the urban north. The second is that the government has also committed to a temporary UK-wide Christmas lifting of restrictions in less than a week’s time, after which the new tighter tier restrictions will resume.
These are contradictory approaches, and they cannot be reconciled on a scientific basis. If the virus is surging, there is no public health logic in lifting the restrictions over Christmas. The reason why the lifting of restrictions will go ahead is largely political. It is because Boris Johnson promised a nearly normal Christmas long ago and does not want the embarrassment of an unpopular U-turn. Many households took him at his word and have made preparations that would be difficult, expensive and distressing to abandon – though there is evidence that plenty are now doing just that.
