Updated 19 July: Today officially marks the end of most legal coronavirus restrictions and guidance in England.

While some businesses and organisations are enforcing their own rules when it comes to mask and social distancing guidelines, there is now no legal requirement to wear a face covering or distance yourself from others. Restrictions on indoor socialising, including in nightclubs, have also been lifted.

“If we can’t reopen our society in the next few weeks, when we will be helped by the arrival of summer and by the school holidays, then we must ask ourselves – when will we be able to return to normal?” Johnson added as he outlined the plans earlier this month.

Online, on the streets and in the press, there have been a variety of reactions to the changes, with some using the term “freedom day” to describe the removal of restrictions. But for me, that term – and the connotations it carries – is problematic.

Restrictions lifting: the big problem with calling 19 July “freedom day”