One of the striking things about the government’s further easing of the lockdown is that it has focused on socialising rather than further attempts to get economic activity going again.
At first blush, this is a surprising move. The blow that the public finances have taken from coronavirus means that it is imperative economic activity resumes soon.
But the thinking in Whitehall is that the big problem is getting people to be confident enough to resume normal life. The hope is that by allowing people to see some friends and family, they’ll make people more relaxed about sending their children to school and more prepared to go to clothes shops and the like when they re-open.
A recent Ipsos MORI poll suggested that more than half the public thought the government was easing the lockdown too fast. It’ll be fascinating to see if meeting their friends and family again begins to persuade people that it is time to start trying to resume something close to normal life.
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