A cautious PM today will win praise from majority of Britons

WHAT does Britain want to hear later today from its Prime Minister as he sets out the long-awaited road map via which the nation can emerge from coronavirus lockdown?

That depends to some extent on who you are. Business people in hospitality and tourism will be itching to hear the PM announce a swift end to lockdown with as much freedom as possible for them to get back to trading as quickly as possible.

And many who feel their health would not be seriously affected, even if they were to catch Covid-19, will want to hear the same kind of message – that the major danger is past and we can look forward, not just to a summer unfettered by the restrictions of the last few months, but a late spring too.

Both groups, however, look likely to be disappointed. And while the continued curbs on non-essential business, from shops to pubs and holiday cottage renters to hotels, will heap more damage on an already badly-hit sector, it is right that those restrictions stay in place for a while longer.

Re-opening schools, always a priority, will go ahead from March 8 and even that relatively modest measure is likely to have an impact on case rates as children and their parents congregate in larger numbers once more.

But education is a priority and the risks look manageable – but only so long as other restrictions are maintained until more people have been vaccinated, case rates have fallen further and hospitals are able to declare that they are caring for a tiny fraction of the number of seriously ill patients that were swamping intensive care wards just a few weeks ago.

There is no doubt that, collectively, the nation and indeed much of the world has been made a lot more anxious about infectious disease as a result of this pandemic. Winter flu annually claims up to 17,000 lives – well short of the 100,000-plus already dead from Covid-19, but still a significant number. Yet few would stay home, give up socialising and accept massive restrictions on their liberty to cut down on cases of flu. We get vaccinated and we live with it.

Or, at least, that was the case before coronavirus, which has changed the way many people think about infections with the potential to affect many hundreds of thousands of people. That revaluation of risk is a direct result of coronavirus and will weigh heavily today on Boris Johnson and his cabinet colleagues as they put the finishing touches to what looks as if it will be a very cautious plan to lift us all out of lockdown, gradually and with large gaps between each measure.

It’s the right approach. Covid-19 has knocked the stuffing out of society and, to some extent, has proved a wake-up call for the way we live our lives today, in close proximity with others and minimum protection. In time we will – indeed, we must – lose our fear and get back to acceptable western levels of contact. But for all the complaints of MPs urging the PM to throw caution to the wind, his – belated – concern to take a softly, softly approach chimes with the majority. We’ve come a long way. We can’t throw it away now.