Covidiots

[jonjel]

Do you think that this has gone on for so long that people are going to bend the rules, or even ignore them? And are the rules simply too complicated?

Certainly seems to be the case in some Universities where parties have been taking place, and I saw some film of people coming out of bars in Liverpool clearly not giving a toss about social distancing.

[excoriator]

I don't think the public is going to take a rule which says pubs must be closed whilst restaurants can stay open very seriously as it is is clearly nonsensical.

Nor are they impressed by being told by the prime mininster (with offstage threats of redundancy for no compliance) to commute back into offices 'to save the economy' particularly when the order is reversed a day or two later. Idiocies like 'projuect Moonshine' to test 10 million people a day which never actually materialise, the chaotic state of the track and trace system, stupid infantile 'traffic lights', colour coded threat levels and tiers which are announced with a fanfare only to never be mentioned again don't help either. Nor do the antics of Mr Cummings who seems to be above such constraints inspire any usrge to obey.

If you want the publics support, you need a clear strategy with a single aim understood by everyone, and sensible measures to implement it.

Unfortunately we have the PM torn between fighting the virus and 'saving teh economy' bringing in conflicting measures usually in a panic response to some event and little evidence of any proactive action. I am not claiming the public ignoring these things is blameless, but I AM saying it is understandable.

I think a leader has to be decisive and strong minded, and be unafraid of unpopularity. Boris as a professional player to the gallery and crowd pleaser is none of these thing. When you have a chaotic army, the fault is always the general in charge of it.

[skylark]

So are pubs with tables also to be closed? I thought they could stay open so long as they serve customers at tables; it is the milling round a bar that is best avoided.

What was bonkers was changing the rule to allow six people, all from different households, to meet up indoors (medium risk areas). The previous guidance was for only two households to meet up under cover which made far more sense.

[jonjel]

Oct 20, 2020 18:52:35 GMT skylark said:

So are pubs with tables also to be closed? I thought they could stay open so long as they serve customers at tables; it is the milling round a bar that is best avoided.

What was bonkers was changing the rule to allow six people, all from different households, to meet up indoors (medium risk areas). The previous guidance was for only two households to meet up under cover which made far more sense.

I agree Larkers, the rules are far to complex.

One issue as I see it is when this pandemic first surfaced and we all went into lockdown I think the overwhelming number of the population obeyed the rules, which I fond a bit surprising but I think there was a real fear in virtually everyone that they could be next, and film of people in other countries being buried by bulldozer en masse.

Now, as we begin to know more, and some of the press behaving deplorably people are starting to think 'hey, even if I get it the survival rate is 99.9999999% or whatever so who cares' so they will and do break the rules. It is impossible to police large gatherings as people will claim they did not 'organise' it, they simply joined in. But we have the easy targets and absurd situations where granny comes to tea but with two tiny children asleep upstairs there are more than 6 people in the house and some nasty little neighbour reports them, the police call and granny has to leave. Not frequent but it does and has occurred.

I care because I am old. But I think we need crystal clear rules and I don't think people like Andy Burnham are helping and I am not saying that because he is left wing.

[skylark]

I am not sure about this, but I think the six person rule applies to gatherings, so if the children are not in the same room mingling with the six grown ups no rule is broken.