I think its important not to always drag lockdown into these discussions of what a reasonable future looks like. I wouldnt go so far as to call it a red herring, but it is an emergency handbrake that authorities here will only resort to if the numbers become too extreme for healthcare systems to cope with.
Surely a sensible argument about what this next period should look like involves more of a balance of other things, such as various measures designed to reduce transmission but that do not totally spoil our lives.
Masks are a great example. There was 'cultural resistance' to mask wearing by our establishment, and there have been press conferences with the likes of Van Tam saying that there wont simply be a day where we all throw away our masks, which gave Johnson the chance to demonstrate just how much he hated that view of the future, and would instead try to abandon masks as quickly as possible.
And there are many ways to frame that stuff. If, instead of people moaning about masks and being desperate to ditch them as soon as possible, they were encouraged to consider the possibility that keeping mask rules makes it less likely that the draconian stuff like lockdowns will have to be reimposed in future, then perhaps people would view them in a more positive light.
Distancing and venue capacity rules are another issue. Clearly there are business reasons why plenty of entities dont think they can live with those rules for a long time to come, and pressure exists to ditch them. But simply running along this route as quickly as possible is hardly the most secure strategy if trying to avoid future restrictions that are even more damaging to business is the goal.
We could also consider stuff like masks in schools and exactly what the motive and logic was of ditching those rules when we did. Establishment cultural resistance to kids wearing masks in the classroom manifested itself via a number of claims including that the masks disrupt kids ability to learn. I would suggest that the recent spread of Delta variant through schools has had a far greater disruptive effect on kids eduction than masks.
