As part of the general easing of Coronavirus lockdown measures, the Prime Minister announced on Tuesday that places of worship would be able to reopen for prayer and services, including weddings with a maximum of 30 people, all subject to social distancing.
The news will be welcomed by the 250 couples whose weddings had been put on hold during lockdown, but particularly by local veterinary surgeons, Simon and Caroline Baker, whose daughter, Emily, was due to get married to her fiance, Adam, last weekend.
Slow grinding of “bureaucratic wheels”
Dr Baker had written to Conservative Isle of Wight MP, Bob Seely about the issue several times during lockdown, but had received nothing other than a standard placeholding response. After News OnTheWight contacted Bob last week explaining we were writing an article about his lack of response, Dr Baker received a phone call within the hour.
He was told that the “bureaucratic wheels were grinding slowly” and that the issue had not had much profile. Something that might have been different, he said, had Bob’s office taken an interest earlier on.
Non-essential shopping OK, but weddings still banned
Over 24,000 people signed a petition calling for weddings to go ahead, but even when the relaxation of shopping, partial re-opening of schools, meeting friends, funerals (restricted to ten people), creating family bubbles, etc were all going ahead, weddings – which only require five people – were still banned.
Mr Baker explained why the wedding that had been planned was so very important to his daughter and her fiance,
“They’re good Christian kids who are not going to cohabit until they are wed.
“Marriage for them represents a complete change of life in a way that is not quite the same for couples who have already been living together for years.”
Wedding was the light on the horizon
The Bishop of Portsmouth had been supportive of the wedding going ahead, but Dr Baker explained,
“During lockdown the Government maintained a near-absolute ban on all weddings. My daughter, Emily, is a junior doctor whose life was turned upside down by the huge changes imposed on medical staff by Covid. The bright spot in the horizon was her planned wedding on 20th June. But as the Government opened non-essential shops, the ban on weddings remained.
“There was simply no good reason for this. Legal marriage only requires five people to gather. I had submitted questions to be raised at the daily Downing Street briefings and had emailed Matt Hancock directly: nothing. Weddings were mentioned in the Plan to Rebuild issued in early May and then appeared to have been entirely forgotten.
“It was neglect at best, and cruel incompetence at worst to maintain for so long and with no acknowledged ‘exit strategy’ such a ban on a basic human right. How far has the Tory party slipped to care so little about marriage?
“Then, out of the blue, Boris Johnson announces on Tuesday that weddings were back on from 4th July and with up to 30 people. Very fortunately Emily’s church has been able to respond and she will marry Adam on that day!
“The Government could have allowed small weddings weeks ago. They could have said previously that slightly bigger weddings would be on the cards in the next round of relaxations. But, as with the Government’s handling of this whole Covid crisis they have caused distress unnecessarily through their utter lack of transparency all the while claiming to be straight with the public. They couldn’t even give an honest answer to Bob Seely last week.”
Image: Micheile Henderson under CC BY 2.0
