As 2021 rapidly comes to an end and we embark upon a third year of life with Covid, the United Kingdom’s four constituent countries (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland) have chosen to differ in their respective approaches to ushering in the New Year. Although Boris Johnson is officially Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the devolution of certain administrative powers means that his latest decisions about Covid restrictions apply only to England. On 27 December, after conferring online with the government’s chief medical and scientific advisers, Mr. Johnson decided to maintain the status quo in England, staying with Plan B restrictions and not further restraining already somewhat curtailed New Year’s Eve celebrations. In doing so, he reassured the more militant of his Cabinet colleagues and a cohort of increasingly fractious backbench Conservative MPs, and also offered a “lifeline” to an already beleaguered English hospitality trade.
The decision to defer Covid restrictions in England to the New Year appears to have been guided by a growing recognition that the highly infectious Omicron variant generally causes relatively minor symptoms, and is further propped up by the government’s faith in an accelerated vaccination programme to slow down its spread. In England, no new restrictions have thus been brought in, although existing requirements for compulsory face coverings on public transport and in most indoor public places and for NHS Covid passes to enter nightclubs remain in place.
North of the 96-mile-long Anglo-Scottish border, new restrictions came into effect in Scotland from Boxing Day (26 December) onwards. Numbers of attendees at live public events have been limited to 100 at indoor standing events, 200 at indoor sitting events, or 500, either seated or standing, at outdoor events. Social distancing of one metre is required at all live events and in all hospitality and leisure settings. Social contact with other households is restricted to groups of up to three households. Licensed premises have been restricted to table service only. Annual festivities, including Hogmanay (New Year’s Day) celebrations, have been either postponed or cancelled altogether, and spectators prohibited from attending football matches or other mass sporting events in person. Nightclubs have closed for three weeks from 27 December, except where “the premises are repurposed as a pub, following the standard opening hours for pubs as specified by the licensing authority”.
To the west of England, the administration in Wales similarly introduced a new set of restrictions, also on Boxing Day. A more cautious two-metre social distancing standard is now demanded of in all public premises, where a maximum of up to six people can meet in any single group at any one time. Attendance at public events has been capped at 30 for indoor events and 50 for outdoor events. Nightclubs have closed, while licensed premises are restricted to table service only.
Further to the north and west, across the Irish Sea, Northern Ireland also brought in its own homegrown list of restrictions on 26 December. No more than three households can gather in a private home. Indoor standing events have been banned. Public indoor non-domestic gatherings of 15 or more and outdoor gatherings of 30 or more require a risk assessment, followed by mitigation measures where needed, before they can go ahead. And there’s more for those seeking more detail. Wherever you may live in the UK, it’s important to visit the relevant official government website for reliable information about best practice during the festive period.
Members of the hospitality trade in Scotland and Wales, especially those closest to the English border, are particularly unhappy, not only at the loss of trade at a busy time of the year but also at the thought of revellers travelling relatively short distances into England to celebrate New Year’s Eve. The national differences in practice don’t stand up to scrutiny when many towns and villages straddle, or are close to, England’s borders, especially along the 160-mile-long border with Wales, and when unrestricted travel between the nations is permitted.
The relaxed approach to Covid restrictions in England is in keeping with Mr Johnson’s libertarian instincts and with the ruling party’s keenness to keep the economy open at all costs. The prime minister’s request to the public to “act cautiously” is also open to wide interpretation, depending on individual mindset. Compliance with the restrictions, even in their more liberal version, is likely to go largely unmonitored, meaning that they are unlikely to be enforced to the letter, except at certain public venues. Breaches of regulations are seldom detected, and rarely sanctioned even upon detection. A reported shortage of lateral flow diagnostic kits may, however, prove troublesome, just as it has been recommended that all intending participants self-test themselves for Covid before going ahead with New Year’s Eve celebrations. From the sidelines, the hope is that we have done the right thing in England for the moment, even as we wish even more fervently that Covid will either vanish or, more likely, cause less disruption in 2022, as we become accustomed to living with the crafty new coronavirus.
Ashis Banerjee