Jeremy Vine: Expert slams Christmas COVID-19 restrictions

Christmas 2020 will hit different, as the spectre of Covid-19 looms over the festive season. Cases in the UK remain high and rising, with new areas to enter tier 3 restrictions this Wednesday. Regardless of infection rates next week, ministers have allowed Christmas respite to go ahead, prompting warnings from MPs within their own party.

Will the Government change its Christmas plans?

People across the country have hailed the Government’s plans as a welcome break from social mixing curbs.

But health officials have issued dire warnings to anyone who takes advantage of the respite, urging them to use their “own judgement”.

Some people, among them MPs, have questioned whether people need further rules.

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According to Politico’s London Playbook newsletter, Tory MPs have started to “openly discuss” the plans going “disastrously wrong”.

They worried Britain would become an outlier once again after Christmas as it suffers the consequences of not adopting stricter rules in line with other European countries.

One told Playbook: “I am kept awake at night imagining the nightmare of every other European country locking down much more severely over Christmas, while we don’t and end up with thousands more deaths.”

Another disagreed, however, stating people will do “everything they can” to protect their families.

They said: “The cancel Christmas brigade are another example of sneering media elitists thinking normal people are stupid and can’t look after themselves.

“Every family across the country will be doing everything they can to protect their relatives.”

Health officials have praised Brits for their ability to follow the rules but predicted cases would rise with the incoming relaxation.

Chief Medical Officers across the four nations have predicted whether people “protect” their relatives or not, infection rates will rise.

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Health publication editors have also issued a damning indictment of the rules, stating they will only cost lives going into Christmas.

Editors of the leading Health Services Journal and British Medical Journal said without “swift and decisive action” the Government cannot claim it is “protecting the NHS”.

They wrote: “We believe the government is about to blunder into another major error that will cost many lives.”

“If our political leaders fail to take swift and decisive action, they can no longer claim to be ‘protecting the NHS’.”

Number 10 said it had “no plans” to review the rules ahead of Christmas.

Government officials and their advisors across the four nations have issued repeated warnings for people to think “really carefully” about how they gather at Christmas.

Cabinet minister Stephen Barclay said: “We’ve got to trust the British people to act responsibly and do the minimum that is possible for them in their family situation.”

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