It's all because Project Fear worked too well: Saint Boris the clown and his merry men deliberately terrified the nation, and the nation is still terrified, no matter how much bumbling Boris tries to hint "it's all right to spend your money now, blah blah blah". Yes, some people are prudently hanging on to their money, because Boris destroyed their jobs and businesses. He dare not say things are safer than they were, because the terrified public won't believe that, so his pleas for us to spend are not convincing. With all his U-turns, perhaps people are starting to realise that Saint Boris is no longer the voice of God they thought he was, so he's probably making people feel even less willing to behave normally.
Let's hope and pray that after the schools have gone back, there isn't the much-fabled second wave, which also didn't happen after the beaches, VE day, BLM, protests etc, and people finally see that things are not as bad as they were conned into believing.
And we need to get rid of those fucking "I believe in Father Christmas the virus" muzzles. And yes, I will call them that with no shame at all. It's clear that their main purpose is to try to mitigate Project Fear, when Saint Boris found he couldn't switch it off as easily as he switched it on. They might have a small protection effect, but they are a massive symbol of fear and unquestioning compliance with Boris's weak reacting-to-pressure U-turns, after he unequivocally told us "masks are useless". If he wanted to make an official "end" to the pandemic, and told us to wear T-shirts (in December) saying "the pandemic is over", people probably would.