it is with a heavy heart and the grim realisation that there are no right answers available that I support the Government’s decision to implement a second national lockdown. Decision-makers face a wretched set of alternatives and are acting on the best advice available.

I have inputted my views on the proposed restrictions, including the ban on Golf and Tennis which I believe is unnecessary provided other conditions are adhered to and have asked that any lessons emerging from the Welsh lockdown, including those relating to secondary schools, might be appropriate to be implemented in the second half of this exercise.

I note that most other similar nations are in a similar quandary. We don’t have the Asian experience of SARS or the same type of societies, even those properly democratic like Taiwan. Having said all of this I have listened carefully and sympathetically to the arguments of Lord Robert Sumption amongst others about our liberties and the livelihoods being put at stake. I retain my independence of judgement (I voted against the ten o’clock curfew for example) but I do not envy the Prime Minister and his colleagues in arriving at their judgements.

However, I am convinced this will be behind us by the Spring and I’m working with my energetic new neighbour Claire Courtinho and representatives of our Borough, District and County Councils together with the Local Enterprise Partnership that we are as prepared as we can be for the full return to normality and the rescue of our local economy in East Surrey. My support for the Chancellor’s business measures and further special measures for aviation will continue.

As I receive a large number of enquiries relating to the details of the restrictions imposed during this lock-down I have and will continue to, provide as much useful information from the government as I can (see link below) to assist constituents to navigate their way around the support available.

Thank you for your ongoing stoicism during this unhappy challenge which marks out 2020 for many of us so far, as a year to forget!

Crispin Blunt MP

5 November 2020

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/new-national-restrictions-from-5-november?priority-taxon=774cee22-d896-44c1-a611-e3109cce8eae