The plans of the UK and devolved governments to ease restrictions over Christmas are coming under increasing criticism. Matt Hancock faced repeated questioning last night on whether this was wise given the new strain that he thinks might be behind the more rapid spread of the virus in London and the south east. This morning, the British Medical Journal and the Health Service Journal have called in a joint editorial for the government to scrap the Christmas easing entirely and ban all household mixing this Christmas. The two editors write that ‘we believe the government is about to blunder into another major error that will cost many lives. If our political leaders fail to take swift and decisive action, they can no longer claim to be ‘protecting the NHS.’
Now, I suspect that scrapping the Christmas easing entirely is simply not feasible. Ministers relaxed the rules as they feared that if they did not do so there would be mass disobedience and it would have been far harder to get compliance back after that. But there is a case for the government urging people not to travel for Christmas; one of the big dangers is that people move from high infection areas to low ones and that spreads the virus around the country.
Politicians are in an almost impossible position over Christmas. It is telling that all the UK government, the Scottish one, the Welsh one and the Northern Ireland executive all signed up to this plan. But in the current circumstances – and given what we have seen in Canada and the US after their Thanksgiving holidays – is does seem like mass take up of the Christmas easing will lead to a dangerously large spike in infections.
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