Fear and relief as Stay at Home ends

Our rediscovered freedoms as lockdown eases come with ongoing responsibilities

Tomorrow Scotland takes a major step out of lockdown as the longobserved Stay at Home message is dropped in favour of a Stay Local one.

There is trepidation as well as relief as the restrictions are eased in what everyone hopes will be a gradual return to something like normal life over the next three months.

The reopening on Monday of hairdressers is perhaps the most eagerly awaited date for many whose manes have become, quite literally, a growing problem in recent weeks.

There will be hardly a soul who is not desperate to enjoy these new found freedoms after so many months of self-sacrifice to protect ourselves and, more often, the most vulnerable in society.

The first venture to a favourite beauty spot on the other side of town will be all the sweeter for all the times that we wished to go but denied ourselves.

The same is true of some of our favourite local businesses. We will enjoy the chat from our hairdressers all the more for not having heard it for so long.

Their tips jars are likely to fill up fast in the coming days and deservedly so. These recent months have been hard on most people running businesses.

The concern though is, as ever, over the minority who do not know how to behave responsibly.

We have already seen in recent days increasing problems with crowds gathering to drink in parks and other public spaces as the weather gets a little better.

How much worse might these popular gathering spaces become once the lockdown rules ease and its the Easter weekend?

And what are the chances of avoiding a repeat of the scenes experienced south of the Border with vast crowds flocking to popular coastal spots?

The police are appealing for common sense to prevail and the local authority in East Lothian has issued a ‘don’t come and visit us yet’ plea in the hope of reminding everyone of the risks if we all dash the same way at the same time.

These appeals will help as a timely reminder to the sensible majority who might not have thought about the chances of everyone else planning the same seaside trip this weekend.

There are others will simply ignore the warnings, thinking they apply to others and not themselves.

The police have a difficult job in these circumstances, but where the rules are blithely broken they must uphold the law.