Government adviser who says two-metre social distancing rule was ‘conjured out of nowhere’ says pubs should re-open – as long as they don’t get overcrowded
- Pubs were shut on March 23 but Prof Robert Dingwall wants rules relaxed
- He sees ‘no particular reason’ why they shouldn’t open on sunny weekends
- Prof Dingwall says it would be up to individual landlords to control the situation
Beer gardens should be allowed to reopen to drinkers, a Government adviser believes.
Pubs have been shut since the UK went into lockdown on March 23, but Professor Robert Dingwall said it is time to relax the rules.
‘If it is a sunny weekend afternoon and the pub has a garden and the landlords are prepared to accept responsibility for not overcrowding that garden, I see no particular reason why it should not reopen,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday.
Professor Robert Dingwall (above) has said ‘there’s never been a scientific basis for two metres, it’s kind of a rule of thumb. But it’s not like there is …rigorous scientific literature that it is founded upon’
The sociologist, who is a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group, also made a startling claim that the two-metre social distancing rule was ‘conjured up out of nowhere’.
Warning that social distancing measures can’t be sustained without causing damage to society, he said: ‘There’s never been a scientific basis for two metres, it’s kind of a rule of thumb. But it’s not like there is …rigorous scientific literature that it is founded upon.’
Pubs have been shut since the UK went into lockdown on March 23. Above, the Old Wellington Inn & Sinclair’s Oyster Bar in busier times before the lockdown, with people drinking in beer garden