The U.K. Government is more interested in distracting people from its issues than Covid and has “long abandoned any sense of following the science”, First Minister Mark Drakeford has said, as he confirmed further easing of rules in Wales. The BBC has more.
Mr Drakeford told BBC Breakfast: “We’ve always taken a different approach in Wales, one that does things step-by-step in line with the science.
“We’re a Government that doesn’t need to grab headlines to distract attention from the difficulties that we would be in if we were in the same position as the Government in England.”
Wales is currently in a three-week process of removing most of its Covid rules, with fans now allowed to return to sports stadiums and pubs and restaurants allowed to operate outdoors without the rule of six or social distancing.
But even when Wales reaches alert level zero, some measures will remain, such as face masks in shops and hospitality venues, Covid passes for nightclubs and large events and self-isolation rules.
In England, however, all Plan B measures will end on Thursday, including mandatory face masks and Covid passes.
Referring to the No 10 parties scandal, Mr Drakeford added: “I don’t think there’s any doubt at all that the U.K. Government has long abandoned any sense that it is following the science. It is a Government desperately in difficulties of its own making and is forever on the lookout for a headline which will distract people’s attention from the awful mess that it finds itself in.”
Welsh Secretary Simon Hart said: “The First Minister’s comments are an uncalled for and opportunistic insult towards medical advisers and the public.”
Russell George, the Conservative MS for Monmouthshire, asked why, if Mr. Drakeford is “so confident that he’s getting things right in Wales”, he is “running away from a Wales-specific public inquiry”, noting that: “We’ve got the worse Covid death rates of any of the U.K. nations.”
The fact that ‘Alert Level Zero’ in Wales still involves the Plan B measures – vaccine passports and mask mandate – that England is now lifting, plus the Plan A measure of self-isolation that Boris has signalled he will shortly repeal, tells you everything you need to know about Mark Drakeford’s idea of ‘The Science’. Does he ever intend to remove these measures? If so he hasn’t said – and he’ll clearly need to think up a new name for his alert levels when he does.
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