As part of the 'roadmap' setting out the easing of Coronavirus restrictions, the PM has indicated that the wearing of face masks will no longer be a legal requirement in England - or it won't be a Government 'diktat' as he put it. It's not quite as simple as that, for despite it being the intention to allow people to take responsibility for their own decision as to whether to wear one or not, a number of businesses have already announced their intention to make them compulsory for customers. All well and good up to a point: businesses have an implicit right to choose who they do or don't want to serve, as long as it doesn't amount to illegal discrimination, who's going to enforce this? To have some train companies, for example, requiring them and others not, is a recipe for confusion: how are passengers supposed to know? And shop assistants have been reporting a massive increase in assaults on staff, so to have something which isn't a legal requirement any more is asking for trouble. The police aren't going to want to get involved if it's no longer against the law, and you might as well not bother having something that relies on voluntary co-operation if the majority of people don't agree with it.
I'm very happy to see the back of mine: they're a pain in the backside for those of us who wear glasses, and the evidence is far from cut-and-dried as to how effective they are anyway. It's unfortunately somewhat symptomatic of a lot of the muddled thinking and make-it-up-as-you-go-along approach which has characterised the govenment's response to Covid all along.
