Boris Johnson’s lockdown mixed messages must end – Andrew Vine

But it’s a long, slow haul from here until the end of July, and one that will feel excessively cautious to many.

If anybody hoped they’ll be off to the seaside for the Easter weekend, and then boarding a package-holiday flight when the schools break up for summer, they are likely to be disappointed.

Boris Johnson seems finally to have learned the lessons of overpromising and underdelivering during the course of last year, when his misplaced optimism over a return to normality raised hopes only for them to be dashed by reality.

There was little of that yesterday. Optimism, yes, but tempered by an unfamiliar caution on the part of a premier who knows he can’t afford to mismanage an exit from this again if he is to retain the confidence of the public.

Freedom can’t come soon enough. I can’t be alone in feeling that this lockdown is weighing more heavily than either of the others we’ve all had to endure.

Because it spanned the darkest winter weeks is undoubtedly part of the reason for that, but so is sheer coronavirus fatigue, the sense of any light at the end of the tunnel seeming a very long way off.

The false dawns haven’t helped – the hope last summer that the worst was over, only for the pandemic to strike back with a vengeance sapped morale, as did the restrictions around Christmas and the fiasco over reopening schools in January, only for them to be shut again within a day.

There’s no big bang this time round. No encouraging people back into restaurants for publicly-subsidised burger and chips, or into the beer gardens of pubs to down pints in a crowd.

Instead, all this wariness. One step at a time, with a pause in between each to see if it sends case numbers soaring again, swamping hospitals and adding to the grievous numbers of dead.

Parents will greet the confirmation of schools reopening in a couple of weeks’ time with relief, and those with loved ones in care will be overjoyed they can visit once more and at least hold hands, if not yet hug.

But a long road still stretches ahead according to Mr Johnson, and his greatest problem lies in persuading the public to march in step behind him along it.

A noisy group of his own MPs wants him to sprint towards the finishing line rather than tiptoe, and for once they probably echo a growing sentiment amongst the public, which is increasingly impatient.

That’s partially because Mr Johnson has become a victim of his own rhetoric. For months, he effectively told the nation that vaccination would bring a return to normality, and public faith in that has been boosted by the speed at which jabs have been administered, with the latest target being for every adult to have it by July 31.

It was a simple message that people believed and embraced with relief as a route to freedom.

But now he’s backed away from it, hedging about with ifs, buts and maybes, suggesting that vaccination is not the complete answer he presented it as being, insisting that tight controls on freedom can only be eased gradually and refusing to rule out the possibility of another lockdown.

That’s the sort of mixed messaging that undermines public morale and willingness to take whatever steps are urged upon them. Looking around at the weekend, and during the half-term school holiday that preceded it, I saw clear signs that people’s observance of restrictions are breaking down.

Parks were packed, their playgrounds thronged with children whilst parents stood together chatting without a thought for social distancing. The supermarkets were the same. A few weeks ago, shoppers were pretty scrupulous about keeping a distance from others. They aren’t doing so with anything like the same conscientiousness now.

It’s impossible to detach the gradual crumbling of public compliance with everyday restrictions from the Government’s mixed messages. It was both foolish and clumsy of Health Secretary Matt Hancock to crow about having booked a holiday to Cornwall whilst at the same time the Government’s advice was that it was too soon for anybody to plan a break.

If cases continue to fall and hospital admissions drop in the coming weeks, as everybody hopes they will, there is every chance of a growing clamour for an acceleration in the easing of restrictions.

That will be hard to resist for a Prime Minister who prizes his own popularity, especially if it risks him appearing to mismanage once more, this time not by being overconfident, but overcautious.

Support The Yorkshire Post and become a subscriber today. Your subscription will help us to continue to bring quality news to the people of Yorkshire. In return, you’ll see fewer ads on site, get free access to our app and receive exclusive members-only offers. Click here to subscribe.