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From what I've seen the jury is out on the 2 meter rule. The issue is, it's almost certainly safer than 1 meter, but at a higher economic cost as it prevents a significant number of businesses from being viable.
Anecdotally I've heard it's cultural.
If you ask the average French person to keep 1m from everyone they'll keep roughly 1m from everyone.
If you ask the average Brit to keep 1m from everyone they'll keep 0.6m from someone so, for Brits, it's safer to ask them to keep 2m from everyone so they keep at least 1m from everyone (most of the time, etc).
Relaxing it to 1m in the UK is pretty much inviting it to go back to normal in queues, although restaurants/etc will be forced to make sure that tables/etc are all 1m apart. You just can't rely on the average Brit to keep their side of the bargain.
(If you ask the average Finn to keep 2m from everyone they'll continue to stay 3m from everyone. Hence that bus stop photo from 2016 that's been going round.)
Greenbank-
Yeah, totally agree with this. A huge part of rules in the UK seem to be made a little harsher with the idea of hoping people only break them a bit, and therefore do what you actually wanted them to do in the first place. 20mph zones are another example.
@edscoble the 1 meter WHO advice is the one I'm talking about when saying the jury is still out. It's currently being slated by UK experts.
Have we had the Rory Stewart video from March on here yet? He's still the best Tory I've encountered through the the recent litterny of shit storms. He's still a Tory though (regardless of what he wants you to think).
5 min highlights:
https://mobile.twitter.com/PoliticsJOE_UK/status/123808553895713996815 minutes if you're bored.
Scrabble
Sunak is right here, all the decisions are for ministers. The scientists advise, the ministers decide.
To date, a combination of poor advice, poor preparation and a government content to take a riskier approach have caused the shitshow here in the UK.
From what I've seen the jury is out on the 2 meter rule. The issue is, it's almost certainly safer than 1 meter, but at a higher economic cost as it prevents a significant number of businesses from being viable.
It is a ministerial decision whether to reduce it based on scientific advice as to just what increased risk there is.
I think announcing the review is probably the right thing. In reality, it's always been under review, but with internal party pressure and conflicting evidence/reports being selectively published in the media, indicating you're actively reviewing it is a good idea. The eventual decision is the tricky bit.