Line of the times

Yesterday afternoon, social media was littered with complaints from MPS furious about having to queue to vote. The demands of social distancing had turned one of the familiar rituals of parliamentary democracy into a farce. The line snaked around Westminster Hall and beyond, with members required to file past either side of the Despatch Box in the Commons chamber, rather than through the division lobbies. The Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, did his best to prevent dawdling, but reports of queue jumping were perhaps inevitable along a line estimated at more than half a mile long.

It may not have been a complete waste of time. Queues have become a daily presence outside supermarkets, while enormous lines greeted hopeful shoppers at Ikea stores this week as they reopened for business. One of the most frustrating consequences of the socially distanced “new normal” being crafted by the Government and its advisers is an insistence that space indoors must be strictly rationed, such that the convenience that many of us have grown used to has all but disappeared.

Worse is that such measures have received almost zero parliamentary scrutiny or debate. The two-metre rule is not some unchallengeable fact of life. Other countries manage quite well with just one metre and there are clearly alternative ways of keeping people safe without destroying the hospitality industry or putting individuals to so much trouble.

Will MPS demand a reassessment of the policy? Unlikely. Yesterday they were too busy grumbling that they had been asked to go back to work like the rest of the country.