Christmas parties are being cancelled. Restaurants are reporting an increase in the number of diners’ no-shows. The first tentative signs of the impact of the Omicron variant on the economy are starting to emerge.
True, the relatively modest drop in the number of diners in the week up to 29 November might have had as much to do with the storm Arwen as with consumers taking fright at the possibility of a new wave of the pandemic.
But the anecdotal evidence is that a chunk of the population is risk-averse and does not wait for an official lockdown before adopting more cautious behaviour. That was the pattern in the past, and there is no reason to imagine it will change this time, despite the prime minister’s insistence that there is no need to
Read more on theguardian.com