Coronavirus: Use common sense to see loved-ones outdoors – Dominic Raab

[PurplePonderer]

This headline is from the BBC - so can we now meet up with family in gardens for example? Obviously while keeping 2 metres apart. It specifies parks in the news story but I can’t see any difference. Am I being too optimistic here? Sorry if someone has already asked this.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52612449

There’s nothing specific about gardens but I think the key thing is not to go inside each other’s houses. So if you mean a front garden or a garden you can access round the side of the house then I don’t see a difference between that and a park.

The thing about common sense is that it's not remotely common

Further info at 2pm

Perhaps at least some of the confusion will be dealt with then.

He bungled it on R4 and the interviewer let him get away with it. Absolutely criminal.
In one sentence he said ‘you can meet 1 person at a 2 metre distance but only if they are a member of your own household’ and in the next he said you can meet 2 parents as long as you stay 2 metres away.

And she didn’t ask him to clarify. I’m absolutely disgusted.

Good point about access. Also the story says “people cannot visit others at home” but that’s a bit of a grey area. Is the garden “at home”. I suppose it is really. I just think we’re (lots of us) so keen to see family properly that garden visits would be amazing. They might also open the way to lots of rule bending though I imagine.

Oh I didn’t hear the R4 interview. Clear as mud then...

It was awful. And I’m not someone who was whinging about Boris being unclear last night.
It is the media that are fucking this up by not holding them to account

I hope they clear this up soon

I suppose they are advising parks rather than people‘S front gardens because there might be temptation to just pop inside for a quick cuppa / use the bathroom etc.

Also that people would travel further.

People who are local to their families are probably seeing each other anyway from a safe distance in front garden /pavement or accidental-done-a-purpose in the park.

That sort of thing is OK now (from Wed?) as long as you do it singly (no huge family groups)

Apparently a clarification has been given on Good Morning Britain that he meant only one person at a time

They need to pin this down properly. How many people. What locations. How distant.

I would need to travel about 40 minutes to see my mum at her local park. Seems like an unnecessary risk maybe in terms of possible breakdowns. But then, how long can people not see family for? I know they had it much worse in Spain for example, I don’t know how they managed to be honest.

For once, and this doesn't happen very often, I'm glad I'm in NI where we have been told to keep staying the fuck away from each other. Which we've been good at for many years.

What a bloody mess. Mixed messages all round. Personally, I'm in no hurry to start exchanging oxygen and droplets with friends, family or anyone else until there aren't hundreds of people still dying every day.

@Wannabeeme

Yes, that's exactly what I heard him say too.
He seems to think that the words household and family are interchangeable.

Shocking!

When asked about people such as window-cleaners returning to work he started off by saying it would be fine and then immediately said that it wouldn't...probably........maybe.

It is absolutely unbelievable.

If they don’t know exactly what to say they shouldn’t be saying it.

Just use your common sense. That's what he said, wasn't it?

We all have to work out how we, as individuals, can live with the virus. It will differ on detail from person to person but generally - social distancing is key.

Meet outdoors, stay apart, go back to work if/when/how you can - talk to your employer.

It's vague because it is the beginning of change. PHE etc will monitor the R and further changes will follow that.

It will be easier for some than others. But the government cannot mandate for every individual. We have to do some of the thinking ourselves.

And Wales and Scotland will do as they will... But in a week or two they will be doing the same as we are now... probably making it sound like rocket science!

It feels like the advice was purposely vague so that we decide how to interpret it, and therefore he doesnt have to be held responsible for anything. With a bit of luck some clarity will come with the questioning today.

If not, people will just do what they want. And who can blame them? Trying to decode some of Boris' 'advice' is basically intricate language analysis.

Use common sense.
If I want to see my mother she can come and sit in our garden as she can get in without going into the house. Or we can meet in her local park and go for a walk.

Protect yourself, protect your loved ones and protect your community.

Personally, I'll be meeting in a garden. Far easier to socially distance in a large garden. I can sit on a bench and guarantee that noone else has sat on it that day - and noone will come along after me to sit on it. To my mind I have a social responsibility to stay in the garden - I have the privilege of having a large garden, so much better to use that rather than take up space in a public park, when there are plenty of people around me who don't have the privilege of a private space. I'm not saying people with gardens can't leave them, but I am filing this under the 'common sense' which Raab apparently advocates...

The problem with common sense is that common sense is not so common.

I agree he went back and forth a bit but I do despair of how many people (if mn is anything to judge by) simply can't use their initiative and common sense. Educate yourself about safe practice that can be reasonably employed alongside some kind of normality. I've been having chats in my parents' garden since this began. I take my own drink and wipe the chair which they don't go anywhere near. We've been asking not to be treated like children but then complain that we are not being told what to do. I wish people would take more responsibility for their own informed choices.

I've just heard Starmer reword BJ. He does it well, doesn't he?

Nonetheless, we weren't given 12 hours notice to go back to work!

Huge-I agree but things that have been common sense and risk assessed by individuals to be safe enough have been against the rules for the last 7 weeks and potentially subject to fines.

I know, I'm such a rebel!! Seriously, I actually don't know why he did the speech last night. He should have just waited and released the detailed document today. No doubt then people would complain they can't possibly be expected to read the detail.