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The Guardian view on reopened pubs: a reckless risk to a cautious nation

<span>Photograph: Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty</span>
Photograph: Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty

There are some glumly predictable tropes and cliches that Britain – and more particularly England – does not need to be bombarded with this weekend. These include: independence day; super Saturday; time to party; summertime booze; beers the good news; and, most of all, cheers, Boris. Stuff like this is simply propaganda. It is massively at odds with the rightly cautious mood – and the public interest – of the majority of British people.

The reopening of England’s pubs, restaurants, hotels, playgrounds and tourist attractions, and the reduction of the 2-metre distancing rule, presents a moment of great risk in the fight against Covid-19. Given the consistently poor record of Boris Johnson’s government during the pandemic it is unlikely to be a properly calculated one. The driving force behind this weekend’s reopening is not that the pandemic is over. On the contrary. Leicester is a grim local reminder of that. The global picture is getting worse too. Last week, coronavirus cases passed the 10 million mark.

International travel is about to boost the risk further. Renewed travel is as certain a guarantee of further coronavirus spread as anything can be. The risk is not just from travellers into Britain but – the bit this solipsistic country rarely mentions – by British travellers heading abroad. This weekend’s domestic measures could have equally uncontrolled consequences. In country after country, the opening of bars and restaurants of the kind that England and Northern Ireland face this weekend (with Scotland and Wales following within a fortnight) has been directly associated with coronavirus spikes. Both Japan and South Korea have traced new outbreaks to bars and clubs. Israel reopened its bars a month ago, with strict distancing rules, but is now facing a second wave of infections. In several US states, including Florida and Texas, prematurely reopened bars have been at the heart of large numbers of new cases, especially among young people. In part of Kansas, 90% of new infections are of 18- to 25-year-olds.

England’s measures are being introduced because Mr Johnson wants to distract from the shame caused to his prime ministership by the Dominic Cummings affair in May. Although the small print of the reopening is full of careful conditions and prudent provisos, this has been effectively drowned out by the prime minister’s hedonism agenda and his reckless calls “to show some guts” as the economy reopens. “I think people need to enjoy themselves,” Mr Johnson said when he announced the latest changes. “I want to see bustle.” Other ministers are as bad. Last week the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, who does not drink, went to an electrical goods shop and announced: “I can’t wait to get back to the pub.” This week, the Treasury briefly tweeted: “Grab a drink and raise a glass, pubs are reopening their doors from 4 July.”

For millions, this is alarming and irresponsible. It puts at risk the individual and collective sacrifices of the past three months, especially for shielders and the vulnerable. In spite of all the hype, the reopening is not popular with a clear majority of people. Twice as many say they are uncomfortable with going to pubs and restaurants as say they are comfortable with it, according to Ipsos-Mori last week. The same two-to-one rejection applies to using public toilets, to travelling on public transport and going to cinemas. In spite of a sustained government propaganda effort to whip up a summer travel binge, taking holidays abroad also makes people uneasy, and by the same two-to-one margin. Fully 90% are concerned about the risk to the country.

Far too late, and with the stable door swinging uselessly in the wind, Mr Johnson seems to have grasped some of the dangers he has created. This week he has started to urge the public not to “overdo” it. On Friday he said Britain was not out of the woods yet and called on people to behave responsibly. Mr Johnson long ago squandered the moral authority to demand responsible behaviour from others. His chief adviser and his exhibitionist father have helped to make his words ring hollow. But that does not mean the message is wrong. As the pubs and venues reopen, forget about guts and bustle. Just show some sense.