Restaurants call for early end to social distancing
●Hospitality groups want rules scrapped for venues by end of June ●Move could create 30,000 jobs as part of routemap out of lockdown
Five major hospitality trade bodies have urged the Scottish Government to alter its levels system of lockdown and mirror the planned easing of restrictions in England as closely as possible in a move they argue would save more than 60,000 jobs and contribute more than £1.2 billion to the economy in the short term.
The Scottish Hospitality Group (SHG), UK Hospitality Scotland, Scottish Licensed Trade Association (SLTA), Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) and the Scottish Beer & Pub Association have called on the government to abandon its “data, not dates” approach based on public health markers.
They have demanded a move to a nationwide easing provisionally hooked to specific dates, as has been set out in England by Boris Johnson.
Under the industry proposals, Scotland would enter level three from 26 April , with a move to a lower level every three weeks until level zero was reached at the end of June.
The group has also proposed changes to the levels system, including the relaxation of curfews and the service of alcohol only with a meal.
The concerted push comes after the UK’S national statistician said on Sunday he had “no doubt” there would be a further wave of Covid-19 infections in the autumn.
Professor Sir Ian Diamond, head of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), told t he BBC’S Andrew Marr Show there was a “lot of regional variation” in terms of how many people had been affected by the virus.
The alliance of hospitality groups wants social distancing restrictions to be removed in venues from as early as 28 June.
Emma Mcclarkin, chief executive of the Scottish Beer and Pub Association, said: “Our industry has been devastated by the pandemic and the recovery won’t truly begin until Scotland’s pubs are fully reopened.
“We cannot afford to delay the recovery and endanger the future of the industry, which is vital to Scotland’s economy.
“Our hope is that scotland will follow
The murder of Sarah Everard has unleashed a “tidal wave” of women no longer willing to accept male violence, one of the organisers of a campaign set up in the wake of her death has said.
Jamie Klingler, who helped create the viral Reclaim These Streets campaign, said it had been “hard to watch from afar” as the vigil the group had planned in Clapham Common ended with police corralling attendees and women being manhandled by officers .
Organisers had been forced to cancel the official event after the Metropolitan Police insisted it would be in breach of coronavirus restrictions – a move Ms Klingler said only escalated the problems when people turned up anyway.
Home Secretary Priti Patel and London mayor Sadiq Khan have called for an independent investigation into the Met’s actions at the vigil, with force commissioner Dame Cressida Dick facing growing pressure to explain the actions of her officers. Ms Patel asked the Chief Inspector of Constabulary to conduct a “lessons learned” review.
Meanwhile, yesterday thousands of people gathered outside Parliament and Downing Street to protest against the force’s handling of the
vigil. They marched chanting “no justice, no peace”, before lying down for a one minute of silence in memory of Sarah Everard and “all victims of state violence”.
Ms Klingler said of Saturday’s events: “I think we were shocked and really, really sad and to see videos of policemen handling women at a vigil about violence against women by men. I think it was painful and pretty triggering to see.
“The fact that nobody stepped in and said, ‘Do you see how this looks?’ The fact that on Thursday and Friday they wasted our organising time by dragging us to the High Court [to challenge] our human right to protest – and we were going to have a silent vigil.
“It’s Mother’s Day. It’s the week of International Women’s Day. And instead of allowing and facilitating it like the Lambeth police wanted to – and that police force was so
supportive – Scotland Yard quashed us and in doing so … got the reaction they got.”
She also criticised the Met’s defence of its actions, after Assistant Commissioner Helen Ball said officers were put in a position “where enforcement action was necessary”.
Ms Klingler said the event would have been carried out safely had the original Reclaim The Streets vigil been allowed to go ahead, adding that people had crowded close together only because they could not hear the speakers.
“We had a PA system, we had one steward for every 30 people that was going to attend – we’ve had all of those things in place, so that there would not have been any crowding, so that there would not have been any issues.”
Having cancelled the event and others around the country, Reclaim These Streets instead urged people to honour Ms Everard’s memory at home through individual candlelit vigils, which were observed by politicians, celebrities and the public alike.
The group also set up an online fundraising campaign with a target matching the £320,000 fines they said they would have faced had the planned events gone ahead. That target was reached within hours, and by last night had passed £510,000.
“This is the start of the movement,” she said, adding that the group was still working out where best to distribute the money.
“It feels like a tidal wave of half of the population [ie, women saying to men] saying, ‘This is your problem, you need to fix it and you need to fix it now – we’re not taking it any more’.”
The Home Secretary spoke with the under-fire Metropolitan Police Commissioner yesterday, but “in the interest of confidence in policing” asked Sir Thomas Winsor to conduct an independent review into what happened. A Home Office spokesman said Ms Patel felt there were “still questions to be answered”.
Mr Khan said he would also be asking HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and the Independent Office for Police Conduct to look into the events.
He said the scenes at the vigil were “completely unacceptable” despite having received assurances from Scotland Yard last week that the vigil would be policed “sensitively”.
Dame Cressida is facing calls to resign after the clashes in which her force’s officers were seen grabbing several women and leading them away in handcuffs.
The Metropolitan Police later said four people were arrested for public order and coronavirus regulation breaches.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey called on Dame Cressida to resign, while Women’s Equality Party cofounder Catherine Mayer said the commissioner’s position was “untenable”.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the commissioner should not quit, but condemned the policing on Saturday as “wrong”.
He said: “I was very disturbed to see the police action. I think it was wrong and I am pleased it is now going to be reviewed.”
In one video from the vigil, a woman is seen being shoved forcefully in the back by two officers after being lifted from her knees. The woman then tries to bend down and is shoved back again. She can be heard shouting that she is trying to retrieve her glasses.
Many people also shared images online of one young woman being held on the ground by two officers, with her hands being cuffed behind her back.
‘Women have done all we can to protect ourselves from male violence. Change needs to come from men’
Men, we need you to understand that sexual abuse and harassment towards women is something you need to fix.
I, like many women, am exhausted after the explosion of misogyny we saw this week – a week that began with International Women’s Day, to boot.
A “Not All Men” hashtag trending on Twitter as yet another woman is found dead. A woman talking about racial slurs she faced causing her to be suicidal, then being disbelieved by a male presenter on national TV.
And as background music, the perpetual sexism women face across social media. A man on Twitter asked me to send nude pictures when I asked for permission to use a video in an article this week. My male bosses were shocked, I was not.
I’m just tired and angry of living this daily reality.
Hannah Brown