Anger is no reason to breach distancing

While we sympathise over the events in the US, mass defiance of regulations in the UK is unacceptable

The pictures of the Black Lives Matters protests on the streets of London are truly startling.

That is not a reflection on the strength of feeling of the thousands who came out to demonstrate in the UK or the deeply troubling nature of the events of recent days 4,000 miles away across the Atlantic.

Any right-thinking person will deplore the police brutality which young black men in particular continue to face in the United States.

Just as disturbing has been the response from their president, who has seen fit to threaten protesters in the United States with “shooting”, in a provocative echo of a Civil Rightsera police chief, rather than address the justified anger.

This anger will be shared by many in Britain and around the world, and many more than those who marched and waved banners in London.

What is frightening about the protest march in the UK is the inescapable context of the coronavirus lockdown.

We have grown used over the last two months to seeing deserted streets and in particular no large gatherings of any kind.

Seeing thousands of people marching, many literally shoulder to shoulder, yesterday blows a huge hole in the hope that the vast majority would continue to strictly follow the rules of social distancing and other restrictions on our movement designed to prevent a resurgence in the spread of the virus.

This mass defiance of the regulations, no matter how well intentioned those taking part in the demonstration might have been, will be shocking to anyone who has tried to follow the rules.

This happened, don’t forget, the day after England’s deputy chief medical officer, Professor Jonathan Van-tam, warned the public that the country was at a “dangerous” point in tackling Covid and appealed for them to keep following the rules.

There will inevitably be questions about whether the recent actions and decisions of Boris Johnson, his Cabinet colleagues and chief adviser Dominic Cummings contributed to such a widespread cavalier attitude. The more pressing question is whether the authorities both north and south of the Border can do anything effective to prevent this kind of behaviour becoming more common place.

We are a long way yet from the place of safety where we can views scenes like these without alarm.