the argument of “but christmas isn’t just celebrated by Christians, even atheists celebrate it, it’s the holiday celebrated by the majority in the U.K., that’s why lockdown being lifted for Christmas but not for other holidays isn’t actually about religion” is literally so stupid because if you used your brain for like 2 seconds you would realise:
Christmas is not a secular holiday. it’s clear that by “atheists” you mean atheists who were brought up christian. why would an atheist from a Muslim family, or Hindu family, or Jewish family care that much about Christmas? Christmas is very much still a Christian holiday - it’s not for Christians + atheists, it’s for Christians + Christian atheists. the fact that people are claiming it’s not a religious holiday just demonstrates how people consider (white) Christianity to be the default.
yes, white people from Christian families ARE the majority in England, so it does make sense that Boris is trying to keep the majority happy. but that’s still a ridiculous thing to do in the middle of a pandemic! the fact that the majority celebrate Christmas is the exact reason it should be locked down, even tighter if necessary, to prevent the massive wave of infections it would cause. no holiday celebrated by minorities in this country would cause nearly as much infection, yet those ones get extra locked down and the one likely to cause the most harm gets exemptions. it’s a completely ridiculous policy and shows that local lockdowns for Eid weren’t actually about preventing infections but about blaming poc, especially Muslims, for causing infections.
Christmas is literally in the middle of winter when the NHS is already under extra pressure due to the flu and other winter infections. loosening restrictions in the winter is literally the worst thing you could do!
