Cathedral U-turns on ‘freedom day’ bell-ringing plans after public outcry

Chester Cathedral has U-turned on plans to mark so-called ‘freedom day’ and apologised for any upset caused following a torrent of anger on social media.

It announced yesterday that it would be ringing the cathedral bells today between 1.30pm and 5pm to celebrate so-called freedom day.

It comes as Boris Johnson is set to spend the day self-isolating at his official country residence at Chequers after being “pinged” by NHS Test and Trace following a contact with Health Secretary Sajid Javid, who subsequently tested positive for the virus.

Mr Johnson and chancellor Rishi Sunak, who also met Mr Javid on Friday, initially tried to get around the requirement to quarantine by saying they would join a daily workplace testing programme being trialled by the Cabinet Office.

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There was outrage on social media, with some people wondering if the account had been hacked, but it is clear that it wasn’t.

There were hundreds of comments and shares but here are just a few of them.

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U-turn

The cathedral confirmed it’s U-turn late last night in another message posted via Twitter.

It said: “We thank you all for your feedback regarding an intention to ring the Cathedral bells tomorrow marking “Freedom Day”.

“We apologise sincerely for the insensitivity of this plan and for any upset caused.

“The bells will not ring tomorrow.”

They then followed up with: “The Dean refused permission for the proposed Monday ringing to take place on hearing about it.”

Related: PingU-turn? Humiliation for Johnson and Sunak who will now self isolate after outrage