There have been weeks in our journey through the time of the pandemic that have been characterised by a feeling of waiting. It is not as if nothing of significance has happened in the UK. We have had the Queen’s Speech, the early sabre rattling following the Scottish Parliamentary election and another bullish statement about a rapid rebound in the UK economy from the chief economist at the Bank of England. But they have tended to take a back seat in the nation’s consciousness to a feeling of waiting.

We’re waiting for the 17th May, when, unless the Government says otherwise over the weekend, we will be able to, amongst other things, sit inside pubs and restaurants, go to the cinema and meet friends and family, still in limited numbers, but without having to get cold, wet or both to do so. And there will be freedom to hug, albeit carefully (whatever that may mean).

The wait has not been straightforward. 17th May has always been in the roadmap issued in February as the day on which this could all happen, but it was only last Monday that the Government confirmed that the advice that it was receiving from its scientists meant that the easing could go ahead. Even so, the growth of cases in parts of the UK and the role played in that growth by the so-called Indian variant have introduced a degree of apprehension either that it won’t happen or that, if it does, it may be short lived. So we wait and we hope that the strategy of surge testing and pushing the accelerator on vaccination will work.

There were relatively few surprises in the Queen’s Speech. Levelling up, NHS reform, asylum control and easing of the planning process to accelerate housebuilding have all been trailed by the Government for some time. They found time to do some lawyer bashing in the proposed reforms to judicial review which will make it more difficult for Government actions to be challenged through the courts, an area where the Government has not been averse to blaming court reverses due to its own failure to comply with the law on “lefty lawyers.” The controversial Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill will be pressed ahead with. There is the promise of investment in green jobs and legally binding environmental targets and a continuing programme of legislation to move various areas of law and regulation which are currently in a post Brexit transitional legal framework onto new domestic regimes. Target areas include state aid and public procurement. As its predecessors have done, this Government chose to kick the social care can further down the road. It is also interesting to note that the nation’s housing problems have been addressed by encouraging house building but not by rent reform at a time when house price growth, which is not solely the product of insufficient supply of housing, is making it even harder to get on the housing ladder.

We have also had the spectacle of a former Prime Minister swinging in the wind before a Parliamentary committee. Often, when things go wrong, the cold light in which they are examined after the event can make them look worse than they perhaps are, but yesterday’s proceedings will not, I suspect,  have helped Mr Cameron to grow a career in similar consultancy roles. Stories of using the company plane for trips down to Newquay are godsends for the press, but the real issue at the heart of the Greensill episode is how the institution of Government can be protected from either the fact or the suspicion that influence can be acquired by hiring senior politicians or civil servants. The committee’s conclusions will be both interesting and important.

And finally to Professor Chris Whitty. Before the pandemic, he was largely unknown outside his area of work. Since the pandemic, he has become known to all of us through his televised appearances at Downing Street and other press conferences and in public health advertising. He has, in essence, become the civil servant who has exerted (and who continues to exert) the highest degree of influence on the day to day life of the nation and its population in generations. As mentioned in this piece a few weeks ago, he has achieved the celebrity status of having been reported as being on the producers’ wish list of contestant for Strictly Come Dancing. UCAS, the university admissions service, has said this week that there has been a five-fold increase in applications to study medicine in this year’s university applications and that he is the influence behind it. Cometh the hour, cometh the quiet and donnish hero, and I suspect that the public enquiry into the Government’s handling of the pandemic which starts next year will show that we should all be grateful that he did.

Have a good weekend, and fingers crossed for Monday.

Ian Waine leads Prettys’ Corporate Services Team and has advised on a large number of corporate recovery and corporate restructuring cases over the last 30 years. He can be contacted at 07979 498817 or iwaine@prettys.co.uk.