The U.K. politicos do seem to be risk averse now, probably after the outcry following the herd immunity policy. I see similarities with the volcanic ash cloud where nobody wanted to make the decision to lift the restrictions until WW launched a load of us off back into U.K. airspace. I still remember various control centres passing the buck stating we were flying into known ash cloud airspace and any responsibility would be mine. Seemed they weren’t too concerned about safety; rather, they didn’t want to shoulder the blame if it all went wrong.