It’s hard to be heard at the moment over frustrated DJs jerking their knees and frothing at the mouth, but this blog feels the need to try anyway. Throughout the pandemic, one thing has become very clear about the UK. Whilst there was initially one approach throughout the United Kingdom at the start, a split started to happen around May or June last year.

Since then, England has repeated the same mistakes over and over. They locked down too late. They opened things back up too early. They failed to get the test and trace system working properly. They failed to plan for schools reopening last September. They came up with the utterly stupid idea of everyone mixing at Christmas. They refused to designate India a red list country in the hope of getting a trade deal. And so on.

In contrast, the other three nations of the UK have taken a far more cautious approach. Which is why when – back in February – England originally set a date of June 21st to remove the remaining Covid restrictions, such as wearing face masks or keeping your distance from people you don’t live with, the collective response from Nicola Sturgeon, Mark Drakeford and Arlene Foster was a whopping no.

So, is July 19th going to happen? The Prime Minister thinks so. Then again, he thought June 21st would happen. But earlier in the news this week was the revelation by Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s First Minister, was she was hoping to remove almost all restrictions by August 9th. Now that another country in the UK has also set a date, are we finally getting somewhere?

That’s the million pound question, isn’t it?