POLICE have signalled a crackdown on anyone flouting the UK Government’s coronavirus lockdown restrictions over this Easter weekend.
It comes after the Manchester force had to intervene last weekend to break up some 660 parties that included fireworks, DJs and bouncy castles.
Nick Adderley, the Northamptonshire Police Chief Constable, said the public’s grace period on flouting the law was over, warning that if things did not improve, then officers could set up roadblocks to ask people where they were going.
"This is about reasonableness and if people are not reasonable in terms of the journeys and the trips they are taking, they are going to fall foul of the law.”
Mr Adderley even suggested officers would be “checking the items in baskets and trolleys to see whether it's a legitimate, necessary item”. But he later backtracked on this after Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, intervened to insist checking people’s supermarket trolleys was “not appropriate”.
At the daily Downing St briefing, Dominic Raab urged people to “think very long and hard” about observing the guidance. Last night, he took part in the nightly “clap for carers”.
The Foreign Secretary’s appeal came as the Government launched a social media campaign urging people to stay at home over the Easter weekend.
Meanwhile, Downing St announced the Prime Minister had been “moved this evening from intensive care back to the ward, where he will receive close monitoring during the early phase of his recovery”. It added: “He is in extremely good spirits.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel