Only Half Of England Understands The Coronavirus Lockdown Rules
Nearly half of the public in England do not “fully understand” the current coronavirus lockdown rules, a study suggests.
Researchers found that around half of adults (51%) in the country said they understand the current Covid-19 restrictions. Only 13% of the respondents said they “fully understand” them.
And the people making the rules don’t seem to know them either. Numerous government figures have been caught publicly slipping up on the rules, including Boris Johnson, who stumbled over his explanation of the ban on households mixing last month as new restrictions were imposed on the north-east.
On Thursday minister for crime and policing Kit Malthouse denied the tier 3 lockdown restrictions were confusing... and then promptly mixed them up.
Kit Malthouse: ‘It behoves all of us to inform ourselves what conditions we’re living under’#KayBurley: ‘Can gyms open in Manchester?’
Kit Malthouse: ‘I don’t know’ pic.twitter.com/729ww4bHTE— Toby Earle (@TobyonTV) October 22, 2020
On the same day, the Treasury was forced to deny reports that chancellor Rishi Sunak had flouted lockdown rules by holding a meeting at a Waterloo pizza chain to discuss his latest business support package.
Sunak was pictured in a branch of Franca Manca with communities secretary Robert Jenrick and members of the UK hospitality sector, in apparent contravention of tier 2 rules which forbid household mixing indoors.
The Treasury said this was not the case because it was “not a functioning restaurant at the time.”
A spokesperson for the prime minister later clarified: “There is an exemption for work meetings to take place in hospitality settings. Our intention when providing that exemption had been to provide the opportunity for freelancers or for the self-employed who didn’t have an office space to work in, to use hospitality if necessary.”
The ongoing University College London (UCL) Covid-19 Social Study found the latest data was an improvement on the 45% who...
