Lockdown extended for three weeks
Under the legislation which approves the lockdown, it has to reviewed every three weeks and that review was due today.
I don't think it will have come as surprise to anyone that the government has extended the measures for another three weeks.
Obviously the measures are very frustrating to us all and the country is taking a huge economic hit, but there is no way the evidence justifies easing the lockdown yet.
A large chunk of the fourth estate don't seem to see this - I have never been so disappointed in the standards of British journalism as I have during this pandemic, and I don't seem to be alone in that since polls suggest that what respect people have ever had for journalists has nosedived - but I note the majority of the public understand the need for the measures to continue - here is what YouGov found:
I hope we will be able to relax this soon and have no doubt that the government will be working on a plan to do so.
But I don't blame them for not releasing the details of that plan until they have a much better idea when and how fast it will be possible to relax things than anyone possibly can at the moment.
Not just because when the plan inevitably changes between now and the time it is introduced the same idiotic journalists who are currently demanding that it is published will have a chance to scream "U-turn, U-turn" as if changing your mind to meet a changing situation was a bad thing.
But also because publishing a plan now which turns out to be very different to what happens in practice might lead businesses and individuals to waste money they can ill-afford on making preparations based on what turns out to be a projection which bears little relation to reality.
I don't think it will have come as surprise to anyone that the government has extended the measures for another three weeks.
Obviously the measures are very frustrating to us all and the country is taking a huge economic hit, but there is no way the evidence justifies easing the lockdown yet.
A large chunk of the fourth estate don't seem to see this - I have never been so disappointed in the standards of British journalism as I have during this pandemic, and I don't seem to be alone in that since polls suggest that what respect people have ever had for journalists has nosedived - but I note the majority of the public understand the need for the measures to continue - here is what YouGov found:
I hope we will be able to relax this soon and have no doubt that the government will be working on a plan to do so.
But I don't blame them for not releasing the details of that plan until they have a much better idea when and how fast it will be possible to relax things than anyone possibly can at the moment.
Not just because when the plan inevitably changes between now and the time it is introduced the same idiotic journalists who are currently demanding that it is published will have a chance to scream "U-turn, U-turn" as if changing your mind to meet a changing situation was a bad thing.
But also because publishing a plan now which turns out to be very different to what happens in practice might lead businesses and individuals to waste money they can ill-afford on making preparations based on what turns out to be a projection which bears little relation to reality.
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