COVID-19 UK Political Analysis by Tim Hames – 31st July 2020

It has been a difficult week for ministers in their attempt to keep public opinion on side in lifting the lockdown whilst controlling the virus. The decision made last Saturday to reimpose quarantine on those returning from Spain was made with very short notice, involved considerable inconvenience both for those who were in that country already and others who had intended to visit it, and prompted a diplomatic dispute with the administration in Madrid. It raised the possibility that the whole of the summer holiday season could be subject to moves of this kind, thereby dealing a body blow to a sector that has already suffered more than most during the coronavirus crisis. There are also serious practical issues in attempting to enforce a 14-day quarantine on so many people. To a considerable degree, the risk of at least some local second spikes in infection rates is no longer as firmly in the hands of Whitehall as ministers and officials would like it to be.