SO let’s get one thing clear right from the off: I am not a Trekkie (he says, in a gentleman-doth-protest-too-much kind of way).

I’m afraid you won’t find me in a Star Trek costume at a sci-fi convention, or reciting great speeches of our time in the original Klingon. But there is a line from one of the Trek movies that’s been bouncing around my head quite a bit lately. It goes something like this: “Let us redefine progress: to mean that just because we can do a thing, it does not mean we must do that thing.”

Okay, so it doesn’t quite trip off the tongue quite like “live long and prosper” or “beam me up, Scotty” (which, incidentally, Captain Kirk never actually said – did I tell you I wasn’t a Trekkie?).

But it came to my mind a few weeks ago, when huge crowds flocked to places like Luss, Arrochar and Balloch on the first weekend following the initial easing of lockdown limits. And again when I saw pictures of huge queues for drive-thru orders at McDonald’s restaurants, and of long lines of cars waiting to get into the country’s recycling sites on the first day after they reopened, and of a long line of customers waiting outside Primark’s store in Glasgow city centre at half past five on Monday morning.

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Not that I have a problem with any of those things. I’ve done them all. I’m just not sure that I’d want to wait in an enormous queue for the privilege of being able to do those things the very first moment I’m able to.

In last week’s issue, Green MSP Ross Greer wrote about his concern around the easing of lockdown limits on a Friday. Those fears were the direct result of that chaotic weekend in the National Park at the end of May.

A further update on the easing of Scotland’s lockdown limits was announced this week. As I write this, hospitality businesses will be able to open outdoors from July 6, and indoors from July 15, subject to scientific advice.

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Those dates, you’ll have noticed, are a Monday and a Wednesday respectively, which should mitigate the effects of the “first day back” in Scotland – though not as much as the heavy rain which is sure to happen on both days, if only because the school summer holidays are now under way.

On both dates, I’m sure, Helensburgh’s hospitality businesses will breathe a huge sigh of relief – albeit one tempered by uncertainty over exactly what the future might hold in store.

For that Star Trek quote I’m so fond of only goes so far. Just because we can go out for a pint, or a cocktail, or a meal, doesn’t mean that we must so do at the first opportunity. But our pubs and restaurants are depending on us all giving them the support that they need to survive, whenever we can. Without that, we will very soon find that while we might all want to go out to our favourite hostelry or eatery, circumstances will have decided for us that we can’t.

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