PM’s bonanza of goodies

THE Leicester lockdown should be a warning not to rejoice too soon at the countrywide fall in coronavirus infections and deaths.

As several have remarked, more lockdowns could follow, particularly in cities with a large proportion of vulnerable people.

We will not know for about 10 days if the gatherings on the south coast, in Liverpool and in east London will bring a second wave anyway.

We might find ourselves in a situation in which a dozen cities were in different stages of lockdown with different degrees of effectiveness. There might, indeed, be ghettoes within cities. Would local quarantine regulations work?

In view of the events mentioned above, could we expect people to observe social distancing if they thought they could ignore it? Any kind of arrangements, planning, transport or travel would be problematic. We have no idea how long present country-wide precautions will go on for, let alone how long such future, harsher, ones would, once instituted, continue.

Renewals, extensions, contractions, easing? Who can say?

But the Prime Minister is pouring goodies out of his ‘horn of plenty.’

A bonanza of expenditure! It is all very well invoking the spirit of FDR, but the American President was not wrestling with Brexit, climate change and a pandemic all at the same time.

A realistic, nitty-gritty approach is required, not a revival of the ‘sunny uplands’ vision of a couple of years ago.

Margaret Brown,

Burslem