“CRY freedom!”, the heads of governments said on both sides of the border.

Go on your hols so long as it’s on the approved list of countries (by the time you get to South Georgia, it’ll be time to come home). Eat, drink and be merry, but be sure to get last orders in before the clock strikes half past 10.

Meet friends in your actual warm house instead of stranding them in the guaranteed wind and rain of a Scottish spring, stay over with your about-to-be loved one, and wheel in the grandkids for a proper hug.

Suddenly so many bets are off, so many restrictions eased, so many of the norms with which we’ve lived these many months overturned. There will be relief and rejoicing in a hospitality sector which has been on life support for so long, not even to mention among customers desperate to get out their own kitchens and sample food prepared by somebody else. And cleared and washed up by them too. Joy unconfined!

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon announces move into Level 2 restrictions from May 17

The Prime Minister, a time-served libertarian, suggested that this was the moment for governments to stop telling people what they could and couldn’t do; time instead for people to exercise common sense. The First Minister, a time-served mistress of caution, laced her pronouncements with warnings that Covid ain’t over ‘til it’s over. One way or another though, the next few weeks and months will be a stern test of both personal discipline and political finger crossing.

Some in the scientific and medical communities fret that the autumn might bring a fresh spike, or a vaccine resistant variant of the virus or both. Some in the business community fret that unless a proper recovery gets under way, too many concerns will simply not survive on life support much longer. Like so much of what’s befallen us these last 15 months or so. It’s all a matter of delicate cost benefit analysis, or, to be more brutal, all a bit of a gamble.

As the situation in Moray confirms, with community transmission rising, it’s all too easy to get ahead of ourselves. So let’s enjoy new freedoms, but always ca’ canny.

READ MORE: Letters to the Advertiser: May 13, 2021