An event where multiple generations gather indoors, exchange gifts and drink alcohol having travelled from far and wide sounds like a nightmare in coronavirus terms. On this basis, Christmas is one event that should definitely be cancelled. But, as I say in the Times today, regardless of whether they are hawks or doves when it comes to the virus, leading figures in government think that it needs to be saved.
‘If otherwise law-abiding people decide the rules are unworkable, then the whole system falls into total disrepute’
One key Johnson ally says, bluntly, ‘Christmas is not cancellable’. This could change, of course, if intensive care units are full in December. But right now the strong feeling is that there needs to be a way found to preserve as much of the usual family holiday as possible.
The great fear in government is that an attempt to maintain the rule of six and all the other restrictions on 25 December will be met by mass disobedience.
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