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BERWICK-UPON-TWEED, England — Think you’re confused about the U.K.’s COVID restrictions? Try living in Berwick-upon-Tweed.
As COVID restrictions ease completely in England and more gradually in Scotland, inhabitants of the small border town with its beautiful 17th-century bridge and North Sea views are grappling more than most with which rules to follow.
The vast majority of England’s domestic coronavirus rules eased Monday, ending the legal requirement for wearing masks, social distancing and capacity limits. In Scotland, on the other hand, only some rules changed Monday under what Scottish ministers have described as a “gradual” approach to easing lockdown. The biggest difference between the two countries is over masks and distancing, with Scotland keeping the legal requirement for both in public places.
While the town’s dual identity — thanks to historic wars between England and Scotland that saw possession of the area change hands multiple times — makes for a particularly strange situation, the split between the letter of the law and restrictions deemed socially acceptable is something people across the U.K. will have to navigate as life returns to normal.
Though the town center is now entirely in England, a 2008 poll found that 60 percent of its residents would rather be governed by the Scottish parliament. Many who work in Berwick live just across the border in Scotland and the local football team, Berwick Rangers, plays in the Scottish football league system despite being based in England. A number of villages just a five-minute drive away across the Scottish border count Berwick-upon-Tweed as their closest major settlement, meaning hundreds travel across the border to work, shop and eat every day.
On the train from Edinburgh, a rather grumpy train manager asked for passengers to please wear a “face covering unless exempt” in Scotland and to “continue wearing them as a courtesy to others” once in England.
Like a number of U.K. transport companies, LNER, which operates the route, said they would continue to ask customers to use masks despite the removal of the legal mandate.
However, the company courted controversy by confirming Monday it would conform to England’s rules on distancing on its services, meaning customers boarding trains in Scotland could find themselves sitting next to others at a distance currently not legal under Scottish rules. Scottish Transport Secretary Michael Matheson said the decision was “unacceptable” and that “LNER services operating in Scotland should comply with the [Scottish Government] public health guidance.”
In a café in Berwick-upon-Tweed, a member of staff explained that they are still asking customers to wear a mask when they enter and asking them to fill in a track and trace form. Food is still served to socially distanced tables.
However, staff are conscious that such requests are very much voluntary now. “It’s not the law anymore is it?” said the staff member, who did not want to be named. “So if people don’t want to wear a mask or do [track and trace] they don’t have to.”
“We’re keeping everything the same as before to keep people as safe as possible,” she said. Customers popping in on Monday wore a mask anyway, bar one family not from the area.
It was a similar story in the town’s high street shops, where the majority wear masks and continue to walk through one-way systems as if nothing has changed. One corner-shop worker said she hadn’t noticed a difference in mask-wearing or attitudes to distancing, which she put down to nervousness about rising COVID cases nearby.
A barber who works in the town but lives just over the border in Scotland must keep track of rule changes on both sides. Serhan, who declined to give his surname, wears a mask but informs customers there is no longer a need for them to do so. On Monday not wearing a mask became the norm in his barber’s chair, which he said makes for an easier cut. But he said most customers still wear one while waiting for their turn.
In the Leaping Salmon pub, customers can choose to order at the bar or through an app and be served at their table. The cash-only bar option is only used occasionally, though one regular loudly proclaimed: “It’s nice this ordering from the bar again, isn’t it!”
One group in the pub had traveled over the border from Coatbridge, where tighter Scottish rules still apply. “It’s a lot better instead of using the app,” said Kieran Cox of ordering at the bar. “It feels like it’s back to normality.”
One of his friends, Gary McKelvie, said it’s “good not wearing” a mask in England. “You don’t feel like a robber anymore, you don’t feel like you’re being controlled [by the rules].”
Down the road in the Red Lion — a Rangers Football Club-themed bar — customers excitedly wandered up to the bar to order drinks maskless. But even here they still use a track and trace form at the entrance, something which is no longer a legal requirement in England.
An afternoon in Berwick can make your head spin. Welcome to the new normal.
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