Lockdown sceptics:PR Blitz

lettreelectroniqueNon classé  9 janvier 2021 4 Minutes

PR Blitz

With case numbers continuing to rise, the Government is pleading with the public to obey the new lockdown rules and reinforcing the message with a new advertising campaign. The Daily Mail has the story:

Boris Johnson last night begged families to stay at home as the Covid death toll hit a grim new record.

He said infections were rising at an alarming rate, despite the lockdown imposed at the start of the week.

And he warned the only way to prevent thousands more deaths was to follow the rules. “I know the last year has taken its toll,” the Prime Minister said. “But your compliance is now more vital than ever…”

With the virus apparently running rampant in London, an advertising blitz will run on TV, radio, newspapers and social media carrying shocking images of the severely ill in hospital…

The hard-hitting ad campaign was launched on TV last night, fronted by Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty. He said that while vaccines provided “clear hope for the future… for now we must all stay at home”.

Professor Whitty, who is the most trusted Government figure on Covid, said the rapid spread of the virus was putting “many people at risk of serious disease and is placing a lot of pressure on our NHS”.

Dramatic images will carry the stark message: “Coronavirus. If you go out, you can spread it. People will die.”

The intervention appears to be prompted by concerns about compliance, which is far below the level seen during the first lockdown in March last year:

No 10 fears that Mr Johnson’s stay-at-home order is being flouted, a suspicion backed up by figures from Transport for London.

Passenger levels on the Underground were running at 18% yesterday, compared with just 5% last April.

Bus use is at 30% of capacity, compared with around 18% in the first lockdown.

And traffic levels on main roads in the capital were at 76% of normal compared with 30-40% nine months ago.

Having declared a ‘major incident’, Sadiq Khan is calling for tighter restrictions:

The major incident declared by Mr Khan yesterday is a procedure previously invoked following the Grenfell Tower disaster and major terrorist attacks.

The Mayor called for the closure of places of worship and for face masks to be worn routinely outside the home. Downing Street sources said there were “no more new lockdown measures on the way”.

But the Mail understands that Health Secretary Matt Hancock and other ministers have been examining the case to extend the use of masks.

Worth reading in full.

The Telegraph meanwhile, offers some further detail on the mood inside the Government:

Ministers are increasingly concerned about compliance with the lockdown but believe there are few additional major options left to tighten the restrictions any further.

“There’s not a lot more that we can do,” said a Government source. “We’ve put in these very tough national restrictions. It is a lockdown for everyone all the time.” The source stressed that the focus now was on persuading the public to obey the current rules.

Heavier-handed enforcement remains a lever the Government could pull, however. Police forces are already stepping up their role, having said this week that they will take a stricter approach to the latest lockdown.

Government insiders pointed out that the blanket lockdown rules are simpler and should therefore be easier to police than the tiers system.

Whatever impact this will have on the situation in the hospitals, it has a nasty side-effect in overzealous enforcement of the rules, as the Telegraph reports:

People having snowball fights outside face £200 fines for breaching Covid lockdown rules, police have said, amid criticism of heavy-handedness by officers.

West Mercia Police said snowball fights were not a justifiable reason for people to leave their homes during lockdown.

They wrote on Twitter: “There have been two reports of snowballs being thrown last night between 11 and 11.30pm. This is obviously not a justifiable reason to be out of your house, this behaviour is likely to result in a £200 Fixed Penalty Notice for breaking the lockdown rules.”

The action came after police chiefs warned this week that they will take a tougher approach to the latest lockdown, including challenging and fining people outside their homes without a reasonable excuse.

On Friday, figures showed police have more than doubled the rate at which they are issuing Covid fines, with a record 7,396 in the first 20 days of December – the equivalent of more than 350 a day. 

It came after two women were hit with £200 Covid fines after their countryside walk with cups of coffee was branded a picnic.

The women said they were surrounded by police, read their rights and fined after driving five miles to take a walk in the Derbyshire countryside. They were told the hot drinks they had brought along were not allowed because they were “classed as a picnic”.

Guidance for the latest lockdown says people can travel for exercise as long as it is in their “local area”.  Derbyshire Police said driving for exercise was “not in the spirit” of lockdown.

Worth reading in full.

Stop Press: RT is reporting that West Mercia Police has rowed back on the criminalisation of snowball fights.

Stop Press 2: The Mirror has a grim story of police storming a house over a suspected lockdown breach on the strength of a tip-off from a member of the public. A neighbour reported the occupants for unauthorised household mixing, but it turned out the “strangers” seen entering the properly were paramedics bringing the family’s sick daughter back from hospital. See a video of the police reading the house here