Saturday 9 May 2020

Mark Drakeford actually looked like a First Minster yesterday.

First of all I will admit to visiting  friends  yesterday , but it was outdoors and I was  told that I better  go to the toilet before i arrived as I was not allowed into theit house and we kept a distance between us.

It was clear to me that many , had used the VE celebrations to met out doors and I wonder if there will be a rise in cases (and deaths) in the next few weeks.


Indeed i have a feeling that  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying Wednesday he could begin to ease a nationwide (English?)coronavirus lockdown next week, was using the this week end as an experiment to see if such as happened in our streets on Friday will see no change in the  graph of cases reported.


Whether the london media misinterpreted  or where encouraged to do so is open to question , but clearly many of the headlines were misleading in giving the view that there would be a substantial change.




Whatever. I seems to have irritated the leaders of the devolved legislatures to the extent Welsh First Minister mark Drakeord actually looked like a leader in his press conference perhaps renaming of  the Assembly  to the Senedd/Welsh Parliament , has given him sense of purpose.



First Minister Mark Drakeford  said.People will be able to exercise outside more than once a day in Wales and some garden centres set to reopen, First Minister Mark Drakeford has said.
Announcing only "modest" changes to the coronavirus lockdown, Mr Drakeford warned it was "too soon" to go further.
The rest of the stay-at-home restrictions will be extended for another three weeks until 28 May.
It comes 48 hours before Prime Minister Boris Johnson announces a "roadmap" for easing the lockdown in England.
But a UK government minister said there would be no "dramatic overnight change" to restrictions.
Earlier, Nicola Sturgeon urged people in Scotland to stick to lockdown restrictions and stay at home over the bank holiday weekend.
The changes to the seven-week-old lockdown in Wales come into force from Monday.
Mr Drakeford warned anyone thinking of travelling to beaches or mountains that they will be stopped and sent home.
"We must not lose the progress we have all made," he said in a special broadcast on Friday evening.
"All of us must continue to work from home wherever we can. All of us must only travel when absolutely necessary."
Despite reports of tensions between the different governments, Mr Drakeford said he wanted to "move in step with the other nations of the United Kingdom".

Some have sneered about the reopening of garden centers but it may have the effect of giving people useful occupation at home and ironically keep them there.

The problem we are seeing iin the  claims of a "Four Nations Approach" are being undermined by Westminster which believed that the other legislatures should automatically fall in line.


I suspect there will be  an increase of media attacks  on Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford portraying any  divergence  from the line London takes as being for political and "nationalistic" reasons.


For the most part  people have responded , to the  lockdown magnificently , but they are clearly yearning to return to normal.


It would be however if they are mislead by any of the UK governments as Johnson did last week to give the impression , that the lockdown could be eased significantly  in the next few weeks or even longer.

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