Dan Wootton: An England Euro 2020 final win should lead to biggest party in the UK since the opening of the London 2012 Olympics

How’s your head?

Bet you woke up feeling a little worse for wear this morning right, admit it!

But then, if you’re a Three Lions fan, you realised last night wasn’t just a dream.

Yup, it’s really happening.

Let’s just savour this next line…. England will this Sunday play in our first major football final in 55 years – and our first ever Euros final.

Italy is the opposition. It’s not going to be easy. But boy it’s going to be fun.

A word of thanks to Gareth Southgate who, win or lose, is now almost certain to become Sir Gareth.

He held the line. He ignored his critics, even after that controversial draw with Scotland.

He’s kept the egos of his young team in check.

And there hasn’t been a troublemaking WAG in sight.

What a refreshing change from the largely failed England teams of the Noughties.

Now it’s up to the government to join what could be the biggest party in the UK since the opening of the London 2012 Olympics.

'Football's coming home 🦁🦁🦁!'

These were the joyous scenes in Leicester Square last night after England beat Denmark 2-1 to clinch a place in the Euro 2020 final. pic.twitter.com/RkYxwT0YXK

— GB News (@GBNEWS) July 8, 2021

Who knows, if we win, it could end up being the biggest party in five decades!

But, of course, the completely unnecessary delay of Freedom Day has ruined much of the plans.

Thanks for that, Matt Hancock, you cheating Covid hypocrite.

I cannot believe the government has today rejected a proposal to increase the 60,000 capacity at Wembley Stadium to the full 90,000. Just a week after the final all capacity limits are going to be dropped anyway.

And then we need to talk about our devastated hospitality industry, especially pubs. The government has grudgingly delayed the pub closing time to 11.15pm – but that’s not good enough.The rule of six remains in place. Singing is banned. Punters can’t order from the bar.

There needs to be an amnesty on Sunday allowing all venues to drop every business destroying Covid rule for 24 hours.

And if England win, pubs should be able to stay open for as long as they bloody want.

This is a once in a generation sporting moment.

We have all gone through hell over the past 15 months.

Let us celebrate with all our freedoms restored.

It’s taken far too long, but finally a sensible change to travel quarantine policy that might save the dying tourism industry.

Grant Shapps confirmed today that double-vaccinated Brits visiting amber list countries from England will not have to quarantine for the mandatory ten-day period when arriving home after Freedom Day on July 19.

In other words: Summer holidays are back on!

Of course, there’s many aspects of the plan I’m not happy about.

What about young people who haven’t had time to get the second jab and wait for 14 days afterwards?

How is it fair that they sacrifice going away?What about the folk who conscientiously object to having the vaccine at this time? Isn’t this the start of a second-tier vaccine passport society? And is an array of invasive and expensive tests really still necessary?

But the policy is a start and it will provide a sliver of hope to decimated airlines and travel businesses which have come close to the brink.

And it gives us all the chance to get away for some European sun this year, which by God we deserve after a truly miserable few months for many of us.

Japan is doing everything possible to make the delayed Olympic Games a complete washout.

Just two weeks before they’re due to begin, they’ve said there’ll likely be no spectators at all at the events as Tokyo enters a state of Covid emergency.

The torch relay has already been cancelled due to fears it could see cases spike.

What a shame and much of it can be blamed on the government’s slow vaccine rollout, with only 15 per cent of the population fully vaccinated.