I guess there are two options, really.
1. Let it rip and accept the consequences, regardless of what they are.
2. Decide how bad we are prepared to let it get and impose restrictions to limit consequences to whatever that is.
It's looking pretty clear the potential is there to get quite bad quite quickly. Scotland and now Wales seem to be doubling almost weekly. Hopefully that will slow, but who knows.
If we accept that we don't care about cases per se, long covid notwithstanding. we're two doublings from the daily hospitalisation peak in January, and 3-4 from the corresponding deaths peak. It could happen quite quickly, but equally it might burn out.
Do we want to go there? If yes, how much higher again?
At the moment, policy seems to be to hang in and hope it doesn't get out of control without any clear idea of what out of control is or what we are prepared to do to stop it.