There’s a fine balance between easing restrictions and maintaining Covid precautions

Will discipline over social distancing begin to dissolve before the government hits each stage of its road map, asks Andrew Woodcock

Will spaced-out pub tables make people stick to the rules? (Getty)

Boris Johnson’s suggestion that landlords could vet drinkers for vaccinations is an unusually public sign of the struggle increasingly dominating minds at Westminster, over the balance between freeing up society and protecting the nation from the continuing threat of coronavirus.

With the vaccination programme speeding past half of the adult population, the government must balance two contradictory messages, as it tells the public both that “we’re on the way back to normal life” and “don’t relax your guard, the danger isn’t over yet”.

Monday marks the next step out of lockdown for England, as outdoor gatherings of up to six people or two households of any size are once again permitted, even in private gardens.

And that is the point at which a growing number of MPs expect that discipline over social distancing will begin to dissolve and questions will be asked about the government’s glacial schedule for ending restrictions altogether.

Once big family reunions and get-togethers of friends in the (hopefully) warm Easter sunshine have begun, many in Westminster are asking themselves how long it will be before the gatherings get bigger and – if it’s raining – move inside?

Surveys already show that almost half of under-35s admit to following the rules only “sometimes”.

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And one senior MP told me: “If the trends we are seeing now continue, it’s difficult to see the public putting up with the five-week waits, which the PM has inserted between each step in his plan. If, as we hope, hospitalisations and deaths are soon down into single or double figures, will people really be willing for everything to stay shut all the way to the end of June?”

It’s the kind of question that sends shivers down the spines of medical experts, who point out that a horde of millions of unvaccinated under-50s socialising in pre-Covid style represents a massive petri dish for the generation of new variants of Covid-19 which might be able to bypass vaccines.

Mr Johnson’s answer on pubs reflects the bind the government is in. From 17 May, pubs (and restaurants and other leisure facilities) can open indoors, but only with customers seated at carefully spaced tables. Until 21 June, social distancing rules will be in force, but no one knows exactly how they will be policed or whether drinkers will resist the temptation to jostle at the bar or fling their arms around one another when their team scores a goal on the big-screen TV.

Vaccine checkpoints at the door might resolve that problem, but create many more over the fairness of access and the burden on beleaguered landlords having to operate a system designed to exclude people eager to spend money in their premises. Not to mention the fact that the clientele of a jab-friendly pub is by definition likely to be more elderly and less free-spending.

It all sounds like a bureaucratic nightmare that could easily be swept aside by the tide of people wanting to get back to normality. No wonder the prime minister was happy to hand over responsibility to the landlords.

Yours,

Andrew Woodcock

Political editor