It’s up to all of us to make easing lockdown successful – and safe

FEW of us thought that the coronavirus crisis would ‘end’ like this. When lockdown was declared all the talk was of how people would celebrate when it was all over. A pint at the pub, a joyous hug with friends, a big party without the spectre of deadly disease still hanging over proceedings... all were on the agenda.

It’s not turned out like that. While today’s ‘Super Saturday’ is being hailed as the first big chance the nation has to let its hair down after the longest imposed period of quarantine in modern history, the relief is tempered with a significant dose of concern. And rightly so.

On balance ministers were right to say it’s time to take the first faltering steps back to normality. Holidays should be allowed again; pubs and restaurants need to re-open; museums, galleries and other public spaces must be given the chance to invite in the visitors once more.

But this is not a Saturday in early July as we once knew them. There will be no crowds jostling five deep at the bar when the pubs open – or at least there shouldn’t be. There will be no sporting fixtures to attend, no pop festivals to relish, no agricultural shows. Weddings – taking place again at last – will be modest affairs; family gatherings restricted.

So it is important that no one runs away with the idea that just because the tourists are back in the region, the beer pumps in the pub are operating once more and the church is opening up for prayer, that we’ve seen off this nasty virus once and for all. Just ask the people of Leicester. Or those in other northern cities anxiously reading the latest figures for Covid-19 cases and wondering if their communities are the next to face a second lockdown.

It is right, as ministers wrestle with striking a balance between giving the hospitality sector the opportunity to kickstart their businesses and controlling the disease, that people are encouraged to enjoy themselves. And many will not need asking twice to ‘do their duty’ and get down to the pub and drink for England.

But we must not – we cannot – see behaviour that undoes all the good work so far. Already many businesses in hospitality and tourism are teetering on a knife-edge. Some have fallen, others will follow. But for those that have a chance of survival one thing ruins their chances – a second serious spike in Covid-19 cases that forces a new national lockdown. All eyes tonight will be on how people respond to the newly granted freedoms and whether trouble breaks out.

But as time goes on we’ll know if a failure to minimise the risks has had the impact the medical experts still fear and deaths are rising once more. People are being trusted to play by the rules.

Some fear the trust that Prime Minister Boris Johnson put in us not to abuse the opportunity for a pint, or a holiday, or a trip away, comes with too high a risk. That it is too soon; that the messages are mixed. But we say that the future course of this disease is back in our own hands. Every one of us can decide how we behave today and in the days ahead. Get it right and normal life returns, slowly, while the disease is kept in check. It’s not what we were hoping for. But it’s the best we’re going to get. Let’s make it work.