Seems like a lot of people have ended the lockdown themselves this weekend....

[Smithtylater]

I went to work today (am on maternity but returning on Monday) to meet my manager (NHS, working an on call weekend shift). I drove past Hampton court for the first time since i have been on maternity leave. You would have thought it was a normal sunny weekend day? Ice cream vans, hoards of people all close, hundreds of people on bikes, people sitting with their feet in the river, kids running around.
There is loads more traffic, more people around and even my own brother has gone 3 hour drive up North for a 40th birthday party?! I was angry at him and he said that the host said that the lockdown is 'ending tommorow so what is an extra day'?

I have seen on twitter about London Fields today (literally 1000s of people sitting there) and lots of people are under the impression its all ending on Monday ?!

But can you really blame people when you look at the headlines of all the papers? Boris should have adressed the nation before the weekend imo.

[LilacTree1]

The grounds of Hampton Court are open?


Berlin have beaten everyone today, bloody well done

twitter.com/search?q=Berlin&src=recent_search_click

[yogz1976]

Good for them. Lockdown is the biggest crock of shit

[herewegoagaintake20]

I'm currently listening to two sets of my neighbours in one of their gardens drinking together. I'm actually furious. They are breaking the lockdown, keeping my kids awake at last midnight and burning some sort of fire.

[CrunchyCarrot]

I always thought it was going to be impossible to keep the Brits indoors during beautiful sunny weather! It's so often cold, windy, rainy or miserable that of course they are going to rush out and break lockdown or anything else keeping them inside. So colour me unsurprised. They might be surprised however when tomorrow rolls round and they find out that lockdown isn't over!

I guess we'll see the result of this socialising in 2-3 weeks time when case numbers start rising again.

[BBCONEANDTWO]

GOSH shocked with the protest in Berlin - I thought they had eased lockdown in Germany. This is sad because it could cause a lot more infections.

[DahliaDay]

idiots

[Nanalisa60]

Was really surprised to see how many people in London were out on the news!! But I think people have really had enough, maybe people have just decided that they would rather get it and be done with it!!

Maybe older people and people who need to shield because of underline health problems should just stay in and let the rest of the people make there own decision!!

I thought the whole exercise was to stop the NHS from getting overwhelmed, and that at some point most of us need to get it, because a vaccine might be years away!! If they can even find one as the virus keep mutating!!

[LilacTree1]

“ I thought they had eased lockdown in Germany. ”

It varies by region I think? But people want their freedom back.

[LilacTree1]

Nana “ I thought the whole exercise was to stop the NHS from getting overwhelmed, ”

That’s what they said initially, then they became obsessed with R.

Then they refuse to release London though we have lowest R rate in the country...

Originally they wanted to take bites out of the curve, now they want to avoid a second peak....London hit peak on 8th March according to their own projection, so we never needed to lockdown and I’m sure the rest of the country is the same.

So I thank the Germans for standing up for freedom, and Americans. Standing up for those of us who will lose our lives for non covid.

Standing up for those of us who don’t want this in our world under a pretence of “Protecting” us from illness, which we know exists - though some MNers seem a bit shocked.

www.straitstimes.com/singapore/robot-reminds-visitors-about-safe-distancing-measures-in-bishan-ang-mo-kio-park

[LilacTree1]

Oh and if anyone is interested, the NHS figures are not like the government figures

www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-daily-deaths/

[DamnYankee]

Wow! The pictures of the tabloids. And I thought ours were bad. But they are just running stories about celebs in glamorous mansions "locking down" and shuttling the kids back and forth to their respective parents' homes across the country. Kylie Jenner is taking selfies of herself in a new outfit every day. Blech.
Wondering about that. Are they hiring people to drive kids from LA to goodness-knows-where...using private planes...invisible jets?

[greenlynx]

I think that the NHS figures and the government figures are recorded differently.

I saw more people out today but we’re on the way to the local shop and it’s usually like this on Saturday. Our Neighbours were out : one was washing his car and the other was moving lawn. There were no street party yesterday. So we are still in. Not sure what’s in wider world as I’ve spent the day at home.

[Gingerkittykat]

Of course people are going to start going out when they think lockdown will end on Monday, after all what difference will 2 days make?

Add to that people being encouraged to have street parties then we are getting mixed messages.

[Newjez]

Welcome to the second wave.

I'm not sure if the government didn't intend this anyway.

Sometimes I think the government is saying one thing, but we are being encouraged to do something else.

So I guess by end may the numbers will spike and we will lockdown again.

[Nanalisa60]

LilacTree1

The region of Scotland I live in has a population of about 580,000, of which about 225,000 live in a small city, we have had, out of the 580,000 population about 1040 cases of Covid with a total of 160 deaths that includes care homes, also some of the 160 deaths would have been flown here from the islands were that don’t have enough IC units.

Im more worried about all the people who are not getting cancer treatment and heart bypasses and all the other stuff that should be happening in the hospital.

I always thought that we were just trying to stop the NHS from getting swamped with cases all at once, this virus is not going to go away most of us are going to need to get it, we won’t have a vaccine by Christmas could take well over a year,

The old and people who need to shield should of course be staying at home until a vaccine is ready, but the rest of us are going to have to take our chances because I can’t see people staying at home longer then the end of May.

The lockdown is already starting to fall apart!! Only need to look at the news tonight.

[NeedToKnow101]

I suppose life has to go back to some sort of normality sometime. I'm still 'being good' but in this lovely weather, with VE street parties being sort of encouraged, with the daily deaths going down, I can see why some people are loosening their lockdown. Tbh though some friends have shocked me at their sudden lack of physical distancing, meeting up other friends etc.

[LilacTree1]

Nana yes, those are all things I’m worried about too.

“ The old and people who need to shield should of course be staying at home until a vaccine is ready,”

I think that’s got to be their choice though. There are people in these groups who want to get back to work, see their loved ones and even go to the pub. They shouldn’t have that freedom withheld.

[LilacTree1]

I haven’t broken lockdown because of the fines, police etc

But I’m not clear what the situation was with VE Day parties. I’m not sure if they were encouraged by government? Certainly the police were checking them. They patrol the park in my area and were out in force today apparently. I’ve given up on my regular exercise - that I did pre covid - because it’s so depressing.

A friend’s dad has cancer, begged my friend to take him to the beach today - they live near - but my friend couldn’t because of fear of the police. It’s so sad and inhuman.

[LemonadeAndDaisyChains]

Your brother going on a 3 hour drive for a party is an utter dickhead if true.
What the hell is the party going ahead for anyway?
I say this as someone who was going to a 40th next weekend and it's obviously been cancelled.

[excitedmumtobe87]

Most people haven’t “decided” to end lockdown (as some speculated). They were nudged into thinking it was ok by Boris and the media

[LemonadeAndDaisyChains]

They were nudged into thinking it was ok by Boris and the media

To be fair (and I say this as person who isn't particularly a Boris.Tory fan) the daily updates from the Government have stayed fairly consistent.
It's the media that has been ridiculous the past couple of days with the speculating.

[excitedmumtobe87]

It’s what Boris said in PMQS on Wednesday that started it. The press conferences since said otherwise but Boris should have come out himself and made it clear following the irresponsible headlines. He didn’t make a clear enough correction to his statement. The media headlines are based on what he said and a no 10 “source” (since Boris got elected all sources are unnamed but I blame Cummings for that not Boris).

Gov and media were to blame

[excitedmumtobe87]

I do agree that the press conferences have stated consistent though you’re right. No one listens to those though, just the stuff that’s given headlines

[1forAll74]

I think that all the hundreds of people,who have swarmed to parks,and rivers and all sorts of open air places,in the sunshine days,just can't resist going out in the good weather. They just go,no matter what,and most likely decide, that it's quite impossible,to be having hundreds of the police force in all locations everywhere,so they don't worry at all.

Some people,also,have this notion,that being in the open air,as in a park or beach etc, that any virus germ will just blow away in the breeze, and not affect anyone,like it would in an enclosed place.

[Pixxie7]

The seafront near me was full of people, no distancing not a face mask in some sight. The