Britain’s Summer of Freedom Could Be Great
Boris Johnson’s cautious reopening looks prudent, and promising, even if a lot of things still need to go right.
A return to all this?
Photographer: John Keeble/Getty Images EuropeWhile Britain’s vaccination program has been going full-tilt, life in the country remains in suspended animation. A new strategy was overdue, but which one?
Many lawmakers in Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party have been demanding that he lift lockdown restrictions and reopen the economy. Infections, hospitalizations and deaths have been on a downward slope, helped by social distancing and perhaps seasonal effects. The argument is that Britain has plenty of headroom to lift restrictions and can’t afford to prolong a lockdown that has produced the deepest recession in three centuries and threatens to leave major economic and social scarring.