Confusion & Caution Mark Boris Johnson's Approach to Lifting Covid Lockdown

Mixed messages from the Tory government while loosening of measures in England and Wales hedged with contradictory advice – but Boris Johnson sticks to dates (not science, again)

On what should have been a day of celebration, cabinet ministers have come across distinctly uneasy at the latest phase of the lifting of lockdown in England.

Boris Johnson’s message was not for people to get out and support their local business, but instead for them to exercise a “heavy dose of caution”.

The tone was more reminiscent of the confused public messaging at the start of the pandemic, parodied by Matt Lucas in his viral “go to work, don’t go to work” tweet.

  • You can now travel abroad without being fined, but you shouldn’t travel abroad, Boris Johnson’s office said on Monday.
  • It was unable to answer the question of why travel to amber list countries – those where home quarantine is still mandatory – was allowed at all if people were being strongly discouraged from doing so.
  • You can hug your vaccinated parents – but you should consider not doing so.
  • You can eat indoors in a restaurant, but Sage scientists queued up on broadcasters to suggest that they would not do that themselves.

Full story at The Guardian