The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #167690   Message #4051136
Posted By: DMcG
08-May-20 - 02:59 AM
Thread Name: BS: UK thread, Politics and political
Subject: RE: BS: UK thread, Politics and political

There is a risk of 'populism versus the government' over the next few days. According to live feed:
I think not!
(then a whole bunch of stuff about papers attacking governments, death rates and so on)


That is not what I was talking about. What I was referring to was that the popular press has been implying a significant relaxation of lockdown was imminent and so popular opinion might decide that they could breach the rules early. The government is fighting hard (Thursday night) to recover the position and say the lockdown must continue, after all the tabloids on Wednesday proclaimed Monday might the day we are somehow freed. Not only are the government apparently concerned a lot of the population could in effect defy the government rules, you are getting similar expressions of concern from the police.

The papers on Friday seem to be more sober, and fortunately seem to have dropped this potentially damaging - even fatal - line about relaxing the rules.   The Prime Minister has still created a problem for himself on Sunday when he said at Wednesday's PMQ there may be some relaxation on Sunday, and the police are still indicating they are worried about what that might do to the following weekend, but I think since the press have cut back on the promotion, the risk of widespread rule-breaking is reduced.