Strayside Sunday is our weekly political opinion column. It is written by Paul Baverstock, former Director of Communications for the Conservative Party. 

The Covid-19 limitations we have all had to live with these past 10 months are really starting to grind.  As the country emerges from its second national lockdown we have to contend again with the inconsistencies, anomalies and inequities of a tiered system of restrictions that have been placed on our liberties.  Unsurprisingly, compliance fatigue is setting in.

Pubs and restaurants are open again, albeit if only for patrons of the same family or support bubble.  As local establishments returned to business this week they and their diners had to contend with the presence of Big Brother, in the form of North Yorkshire Police and Harrogate Borough Council staff, checking that those present were practising safe social distancing and that table guests were support bubble appropriate.  Three of Harrogate’s best restaurants, William and Victoria’s, The Fat Badger and The Tannin Level had the pleasure of entertaining the state’s loyal foot soldiers, tiptoeing table to table, encroaching on the privacy and relaxation of their guests.  Enforcement activities smack of a lack of trust, both in the individual and the establishment. As far as we know Winston Smith wasn’t among those present.

Being of solid Yorkshire stock, most of the diners would no doubt pass Environment Secretary George Eustace’s “Scotch Egg test,” namely consuming a ‘substantial’ meal to accompany their libations.  I don’t know about you but I think a scotch egg is a snack, consumed guiltily, either at a motorway service station, or (secretly, so your partner doesn’t notice) on the way home from doing the weekly shop.  And am I alone in feeling a little irked about the selection of a Scotch Egg as the people’s meal?  Surely a vol-au-vent would be more suitable for genteel Harrogate.

As with all government public pronouncements of late, this was quickly contradicted by Michael Gove, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, who, between the Brexit negotiation skirmishes he is coordinating to no great effect, seems to be acting as if he, rather than Bojo, is the one in charge.  Wherever one looks at the top of government for leadership and consistency, despair sets in.

This seems to be the view of a great many of the Conservative Party’s MPs who this week rebelled en masse when asked to rubber stamp the latest tiered lockdown regulations in parliament.  55 Tories rebelled, another 16 abstained or failed to vote at all.  All the other parties, including Labour largely abstained.  So too the Liberal Democrats, without irony, notwithstanding that ‘liberal’ is actually in their name.  Little wonder then that they remain an irrelevance.  If we can’t rely on Ed Davey’s tribe to stand up and put the case for freedom, dignity and the well-being of individuals, then who will?  Given that is what is written in the Liberal Democrat’s constitution, one could be forgiven puzzled disappointment.

Residents of Pateley Bridge and the Nidd Valley in particular will be wondering who is in their corner?  There hasn’t been a single case of Covid in the locality for ten days and yet they find themselves dealing with the blanket restrictions of Tier 2 lockdown.  Smaller, independent hospitality businesses in the area, operating without the advantages offered by large national ownership, see no way to open profitably.  This can’t be fair.  Small businesses are struggling on, having invested in making their venues Covid-secure, but unless circumstances change soon they will become financially unviable and we will lose them.  Our communities will be all the poorer for it.

One Lib Dem who spoke up this week is Lord Newby of Rothwell, leader of the yellows in the Lords.  He argues that the time has arrived for the NHS to hand back Harrogate’s Convention Centre to the council.  Press ganged into action as a Nightingale Hospital, the building is yet to receive a single Covid-related patient.  While we of course have to be thankful that the hospital lay dormant through two case number peaks, there remains lingering doubt about whether and how the NHS would have been able to adequately staff the hospital had it been necessary.  It’s time for Harrogate Borough Council to take back the centre and get on with building back better .

The news that vaccines are now in the country brings some solace at least and at last.  We know that healthcare workers and care home residents and staff are to be vaccinated first.  This has to be the right thing to do.  Not least because frontline NHS staff have shown their usual dedication to providing care in the face of considerable risk to their health and emotional wellbeing.  The government now needs to break with its recent history of staccato do’s and don’ts and communicate clearly how the rest of vaccination programme will be rolled out across the population as a whole.  By providing clarity about who will be vaccinated when, we can each inform our own behaviour accordingly.  In the end the government is going to have to trust us to decide what is best for ourselves and our families.  It’s called

Freedom.

That’s my Strayside Sunday.

Read More:

• No covid cases for 10 days yet Pateley Bridge pubs stays shut


• Time to hand back Harrogate Nightingale back to council