The Prime Minister has announced an ease to lockdown rules, in what was deemed an ‘address to the nation’ on our TV guides. But, in reality, the only nation these new rules apply to is England.

It wouldn’t surprise me if before this week you didn’t realise that Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland’s governments all controlled their own lockdowns.

It wasn’t until the Welsh Health Minister got in trouble for leaving his microphone on in a zoom meeting that he got much national media coverage. Over the weekend, the Mail on Sunday’s Deputy Political Editor even referred to the Welsh First Minister, Mark Drakeford, as ‘that welsh chap’.

Before now, maybe you didn’t need to know they all had their own control over the lockdown. There was a consistent, four-nation approach – we all went into lockdown together.

But today, this changed.

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s First Minister, had asked Boris Johnson to be clear when he was speaking about England. But this didn’t happen. Plaid Cymru’s leader, Adam Price, deemed the speech reckless and a clear end to the four-nation approach.

 

The tone of England’s new guidance is entirely different to that of the devolved nations. Here, you’re now meant to ‘stay alert’. But, in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland the slogan is still ‘stay at home’.

In his speech, the Prime Minister actively encouraged people who can’t work from home to start going to work. But, in the devolved nations, this is absolutely not the case

In terms of exercise, sunbathing in parks has been explicitly allowed by the Prime Minister, but if you do this in Wales you can still be fined.

In England you can now drive somewhere else to exercise. But this is illegal under Wales’ lockdown and according to Jeremy Miles, the Welsh Government’s Counsel General, if you live in England and decide to drive to Wales for exercise, the police would have the power to fine, or even prosecute you.

In England, schools may start opening on June 1st, as long as people continue to follow the rules. But, in Wales, the Education Minister, Kirsty Williams, has emphasised that school’s will not be opening on June 1st.

Clarity on these differences is certainly important to avoid getting fined. But the real fear is that by losing the four-nations approach, England’s relaxed measures will undermine the efforts of the devolved governments.

Ffion Clarke

Image courtesy of Ming Jun Tan on Unsplash. This image has in no way been altered. Image license is available here.

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