I feel gratified when public figures catch up with the thoughts inside my head. Last week, Emily Maitlis called out the Government on their careless use of words – after I’d published similar thoughts on my blog. This week, Sir Keir Starmer is urging the Government to publish an exit strategy from the present lockdown. I haven’t posted anything on that but I’ve been pondering the same point for the last few days.

I think that Sir Keir is trying to move the discourse along broadly the lines I had in mind. It is too early to say when we will start releasing the restrictions because we are still waiting for reliable evidence that we are past the peak of the current infection curve. However, we need to start having a picture of how we are going to begin emerging from lockdown. For example, are schools likely to go back fairly early or will a wider range of shops and other businesses be allowed to reopen first? I’m particularly interested on the anticipated route back to face to face church gatherings. Will I be producing worship resources from home for another couple of months or are there ways that small groups can begin to meet so I can work with other people more directly?

We know that we can’t start to enact the strategy and we know that it will have to be subject to revision as each cautious step is taken. However, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to expect the Government to demonstrate that it is planning for contingencies and making the way out less precipitous than the way in. Otherwise, I think an increasing number of people will get fed up and start taking increasing risks – the roads outside are still much quieter than normal but they sound busier than last week.