Getting recreation and leisure up and running again.

I can't think of anything worse than locking down until masks aren't needed - wearing a mask is hardly an inconvenience at all and a small price to pay to reduce risk. It shouldn't affect the economy at all unless people choose to be stubborn about it.

If you're really not willing to even do something as simple as wearing a mask then by all means stay locked indoors until next year at the earliest, because we won't have a vaccine distributed for everyone until then at least. But don't begrudge others who choose to take appropriate rather than over the top precautions and get on with life. Many of whom, of course, have no choice but to do so.

As feared, panto season is in very real danger of being cancelled:

It's great apart from where he says that 'we cannot safely open theatres now' and 'no-one would come if we did'

In France, before 21 June we had a 50% capacity cap on theatres and cinemas. This week, that cap was abolished. What's left is the requirement to have one seat empty between booking families, which can be up to 10 people who know each other. There's a plan for full seating for the autumn. That's where UK theatre should be today.

People are going to the cinema again over here. Pubs will be busy next week. Theatre isn't any more risky for audiences but we don't seem willing to give audiences a choice.

With respect, that is not 'Macron's plan'. All sectors of the economy were told clearly to organise themselves for restart and almost everything was legally able to open under safety regs at the beginning of June (22 June for Paris) So theatres can offer a programme for autumn opening and audiences have some level of confidence in booking - important given the subscription model here. Plus there is social support but it goes alongside the restart plan. It's not perfect but it's been reasonably clear.

Theatres in UK should be legally permitted to open under regs at the same time as bars and restaurants. There's a strong case for support during the restart phase as well but lobbying to stay closed isn't going to succeed nor should it.

Whether it’s personally Macron’s or someone else in government is neither here nor there.

The bottom line is that France is backing up its words with money and the UK government isn’t. Theatres must get that support or they will go under. ‘Allowing’ them to open is meaningless without further financial support for both the organisations and the workforce. Lobbying is not to stay closed it is to open and survive, whilst protecting those who remain jobless.

Look at Germany, their higher levels of subsidy and a truly supportive government regarding the arts are able to open later in the year with the knowledge that they can survive on much lower audiences. 

Maybe you haven’t picked up the widespread disgust at the government’s supposed ‘plan’ here. 

www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-53182634

The comment was saying it wasn't Macron's personal plan, the French website says Macron announced the plan. It's splitting hairs but I get that Macron is widely disliked in France. I wasn't trying to make him look like theatre's saviour. If Johnson had done the same, we would be saying the same, I imagine.

The salient point is that France is doing more then the UK. Why are we not doing this or more? 

That is just a weird comment, but it's an economist, so....

I see we might be getting an actual fourth wall, though ("One suggestion has been to put up a clear screen between the cast and audience."). What if they spit on it, does it have to be cleaned between scenes? 

They are talking about the same economy that delivers billions from theatre. And the idea that going to a grotty pub full of inebriated idiots is better for my mental wellbeing than going to see The Play That Goes Wrong is one of the most moronic observations I've ever heard.

Well for me it's much better for my mental health and enjoyment levels than either the pub or the cinema, but i can understand why it was said in a sense. Going to the pub and the cinema are, for the majority, i guess a far more common and mainstream way of spending leisure time. That is no excuse to ignore theatre though, as it still highly important and beneficial.

Not everyone enjoys sports or pubs but they seem to be getting a lot of help.

Gove, given that he says he looks to FDR will also know that, in that period of history, through the WPA and the Federal Theatre Project, Roosevelt poured money into the arts to save jobs and livelihoods. He will also probably know that it was a roaring success but was shut down because it raised uncomfortable issues about the state of the USA at the time. That's artists for you, always wanting a better world (they wanted, you know, stuff like racial integration). 

I get the impression he sees only government structures as the problem. Fine if he takes a hammer to them but it will achieve little as the problems here come from the way that society as a whole is structured. Breaking existing societal structures down and rebuilding them may have my support but I doubt that's the sort of 'radical' that he is thinking about.

Another worry is how he seems to think that government needs more data scientists. Many of us will have personal experience on how data can be used to make 'a' seem as though it is 'b', so the idea that it's the road to happiness raises a massive warning sign in my eyes.

" as a good primer for this period, a good watch is the film 'Cradle Will Rock' about the furore surrounding the musical of the same name.