Commons Sense

This week the Prime Minister gave the British public a huge dose of clarity and hope. On Monday the Government unveiled its roadmap out of lockdown. It strikes a fair balance between caution and the unlocking of all sectors of our society and economy.

Whilst the plan is by no means perfect, we do now have dates that can be diarised so that businesses, employees and all of us can begin to plan ahead with confidence. From the end of next month families and friends can meet for a picnic or in each other’s gardens, while in April retail, hair salons and gyms can at last reopen. Sectors which have been shuttered for almost a year at this point, such as nightclubs and large events, finally have an idea of when they will be able to reopen, June 21.

This is a huge step forward from where we were a few months, weeks, and even days ago. Yet while a roadmap towards no social contact restrictions is indeed great news, I do get the sense that the Government, rightly or wrongly, may well be acting a little bit over-cautiously.

While it is sensible to allow time between steps of easing restrictions, to allow time to assess the impact. We should be able to accelerate this timetable should the data prove the vaccines are providing strong protection against the virus among the community, and are also sufficiently protecting our health services from being overwhelmed and deaths spiking.

We must consider this given every week sees more positive news about the vaccine’s effectiveness and its take up among the adult population.

It is therefore well within the realms of possibility that the vaccines could work much better than anticipated and might be taken by a much higher proportion of adults than first thought.

Just as we are ready to slow down the pace of unlocking, we must also be prepared to speed up if possible. Jobs, and people’s livelihoods could depend on it. I suspect that If we follow the data we’ll be out and about once again sooner than planned.