Free At Last To Hug And Party: UK Reopens For Business

Most of the British will be free once again to hug, albeit cautiously, drink a pint in their pub, sit down to an indoor meal or visit the cinema after a series of lockdowns.

Friends will hug, pints will be pulled and swathes of the British economy will reopen on Monday giving 65 million people a measure of freedom after the gloom of a four-month COVID-19 lockdown. Most of the British will be free once again to hug, albeit cautiously, drink a pint in their pub, sit down to an indoor meal or visit the cinema after a series of lockdowns that imposed the strictest restrictions in peacetime history. The biggest public health crisis in a century was accompanied by a drastic extension of state power; during England's lockdowns police broke up parties and protests alike, shut down religious services and handed out fines of up to 10,000 pounds ($14,000) to youngsters for partying. As freedom beckons once more, there is excitement.