Boris: It's A Perilous Time... Use Your Common Sense

Social ‘bubbles’ and covering your face part of blueprint to get Britain moving

- Macer Hall

Boris Johnson last night urged Britons to use “common sense” to help free the country from the coronavirus lockdown.

The Prime Minister unveiled a 50-page plan for getting employees back to work, children, back at school and freedoms restored.

Key measures in his blueprint include a recommendation for people to wear face masks in enclosed public spaces, such as shops, and on trains and buses where social distancing is difficult.

There are also hopes of a return of televised sport and cultural events to “boost national morale”.

It was also suggested people from different households could soon be able to meet in social “bubbles”.

And dismissing criticism from opposition politicians of the Government’s changing message, Mr Johnson insisted he was putting his trust in “good, solid British common sense”.

Presenting his three-stage plan for easing the lockdown to MPs, the PM said: “We have begun our descent from the peak of the pandemic but our journey has reached the most perilous moment. We will be driven not by hope or economic revival as an end in itself, but by data and science and public health.

“And so the Government is submitting to the House today a plan which is conditional and dependent as always on the common sense and observance of the British people, and on continual re-assessment of the data.”

In a live television questions session with members of the public last night, the PM insisted the exit from lockdown will be gradual.

He said: “We’re taking baby steps. We think that’s the right way to do it.”