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Lockdown 2.0
England heads to its second lockdown on Thursday. This is what I’m going to be doing.
When Donald Trump’s polysyllabic younger brother Boris Johnson reappeared at a press conference after taking a rare break from one of his holidays, England knew what was in store.
The writing was on the wall when he had announced to the country several weeks earlier that there would be no second lockdown under any circumstances. Much like the chairman of a Premier League football team who insists that his manager is staying despite seven losses in a row, we have learnt that our Prime Minister hardly ever means what he says.
While I can profess little sympathy for Mr Johnson, I understand how difficult it has been for governments to find the right balance between protecting the economy and public health. On the one hand, you have the disaster in the US of hundreds of thousands of people dying needlessly because many states have failed to lockdown adequately and on the other hand, you have countries such as New Zealand which have closed their borders and will see a significant loss of tourist revenue as a result.
And so we return to our second lockdown in England. Wales and Northern Ireland entered their own versions of this a little earlier than us. Restaurants, pubs, gyms and non-essential shops will be…