@TheOrchidKiller It's a whole myriad of massive precedents: lockdown, cancelling exams, government-mandated dress code (face nappies), emergency laws rushed through without proper scrutiny, and throwing billions upon billions of pounds at the problem. I have mixed feelings about the money thrown at it: it's nice that the government want to "protect" the public in this perverse way, but will the magic money tree have regrown next time there's a virus, especially now that we've destroyed our own economy? People might in future start demanding "give us our lockdown and furlough", when there simply isn't the money for it.
This is a job for after the pandemic, but it needs to be made very clear that this whole thing is NOT NORMAL, and we don't want it to happen again, EVER. We don't want lockdowns becoming the government's default response to other things, such as terrorism, or some Messianic zealot trying to make it their mission to eradicate the common cold, by locking down.
Some know-it-alls (sorry to bring Dementor Central BBC into it) are saying that relaxing the roolz for Christmas was a mistake, when it hasn't even happened yet, adding "but if the government was to change their minds, it might affect public trust": understatement of the year. We might then get the riots and public uprising of "enough is enough" which the government needs to hear; at the moment, Boris-who-can't-tell-the-difference-between-himself-and-God thinks he can crush the public into surrendering to his every whim.