Boris Johnson announced the easing of all lockdown restrictions on July the 19th

this week despite concerns of some scientists that the pandemic is far from

over. We must be honest with ourselves that if we can't reopen our society in the

next few weeks then we must ask ourselves when will we be able to return to normal?

Welcome to Payne's Politics, your essential insider guide to what's happening in

British politics from the Financial Times with me Sebastian Payne. In this week's episode

we'll be digging into the Prime Minister's pre-announcement of the

any of all of England's lockdown restrictions in two weeks and ask is it all a bit too much

too soon with cases rising so quickly. Health Editor Sarah Neville and Science Editor Clive Cookson

will discuss and later with the mighty England football team heading to Wembley this weekend

we'll be debating the politics of football patriotism. Is Gareth Southgate the team's manager

sending a signal about culture wars and how does he fit into the narrative about Britain's post-Brexit

view of itself. Our foreign affairs columnist Gideon Rathman will debate with our political

columnist Robert Schrimsley. Before that Clive and Sarah welcome back.

Hi Seb. Thanks Seb. So one of the things that the Prime Minister

announced this week is that he wants everybody back to work and that that order for

sorts of work from home was much as possible and on July the 19th it's rather

curious time with everybody going off on some holidays but what are you two going to do am I

going to be seeing you back in the office quite soon Clive? Yes I'm going in once or twice

a week. I believe you went in this week for the first time and we didn't coincide but I have

been enjoying seeing a lot of colleagues for the first time for many months or more than a year

in some cases so I'm going probably to ramp that up to two or three times a week later in the summer

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