YANBU. Imposing social distancing was a knee-jerk reaction, and it's the biggest thing that's preventing normality. Entire sectors of industry are unable to work because of it. But the govt don't want to ease it, because they don't want to climb down. They're even reluctant to reduce it from 2m.
@PaddlingPoolAgain You're absolutely right: the whole thing has been a massive GASLIGHTING exercise, which all forms part of the 1984 handbook for future governments, and which would make Humphrey Appleby from Yes Minister proud. "The public do not ha a right to know, they have a right to be ignorant. Knowledge only means complicity in guilt; ignorance has a certain dignity."
Some of the granted "freedoms" have been merely allowing what people started to do anyway, such as travelling for exercise. Also these "guidelines" are unenforceable, as there simply aren't the resources; which is why I expect they're called guidelines, rather than rules. The police hung a few people out to dry early on (no doubt on Boris's order) to make it look as if they had the power. Gaslighting.
The government has been gaslighting us from the start, including with their early stance of "there's nothing to worry about", while they hoped it would go away. I'm guessing that part of the govt strategy is to wait for people to break social distancing anyway, all the while peddling the fabled second spike like a bogeyman, so they can say "we told you so". I suspect that when this second spike doesn't happen in three weeks' time (and I think it might easily be as mythical as Bliar's weapons of mass destruction), especially after the protests and so on, then somebody might say "actually, social distancing might not be as effective as we thought; it's a massive inconvenience, we could get rid of it". They might also announce certain easing of restrictions earlier than they originally said, so they can appear to be reasonable. I'm sure allowing six people to gather came earlier than they wanted, but they had to because people were angry about Cummings.
Likewise, the "allowing schools back" a week ago was a token gesture, knowing full well that many people were not ready yet, so they can say later "well, we tried to let the schools back in June, but parents/teachers/unions refused to co-operate".
I think the biggest problem is that Boris won't ever hold up his hands and say "actually, we were wrong"; about Cummings, starting lockdown late, etc. They don't want to be seen to climb down from anything; they want people to break rules themselves, so they're throwing temptation at us, while concentrating on what they can control, such as forcibly keeping businesses shut.
It's this top-down approach of a national lockdown and universal social distancing which is causing the greatest mayhem. We need to bite the bullet and say "enough is enough"; some of us feel we're being kept alive like lab animals for a very miserable existence. I'm in favour of local lockdowns where needed if it means more freedom for the rest.
And again, I'm mystified as to why there has been so little protest about lockdown, and the government's underhand tactics and incompetence. We're angry about things happening 5000 miles away, but for some reason many people are totally on board with this massive state-sponsored knee-jerk strategy which is set to destroy a large number of lives in other ways. We need to get angry about this, before Her Majesty's clowns totally screw us over.