Factories have always been allowed to operate, with appropriate preventative measures in place; the only businesses that had to close were shops not selling food/drink, any health or beauty related services and entertainment venues. I’m sure HMRC will have a field day unravelling all of the various initiatives. But when speed is of the essence generally something has to give...
The problem with respect to Leicester is that the legislation as drafted in the U.K. doesn’t allow for selective lockdown. They can ask non essential shops and restaurants not to open, but not force them, until further legislation is passed. So they’d better hurry up!
As I understand it the spike was seen coming, and local enforcement stepped up, though as it turns out, for reasons stated above perhaps, without great effect.. Should this have been predicted? Possibly...but given how much more compliant the public was to the government’s initial advice to stay indoors when this all kicked off maybe not. I’m sure Keith would say it should have been, though as with all his ‘insight’ and criticism it’s always with the benefit of hindsight. There’s never any contemporaneous evidence of his wisdom ;)
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