It's been five years since the pandemic and I have questions

[BaggyTrousing]

• will Paddington ever be investigated for his role in the departure of our dear old queen?
• was the woman who wrote "and the people stayed home" ever taken to task for her contribution to the awfulness?
• what about that nurse who was roaring about bread in a supermarket car park? Hopefully shunned and avoided at least
• how do you all feel now about protecting the NHS?

The regulations had always allowed for that, so I got very irritated that he sold it as some kind of improvement. It was either disingenuous or ignorant, and neither are good.

But for me, the most interesting thing about Cummings was that it provided a useful signal that it was going to be one rule for them and one rule for the rest. All that matter is now closed stuff.

I thought covid was taken pretty seriously when making movies etc long after official measures were dropped to protect health (and therefore budgets).

Well I thought that but the way it was policed in many areas contradicted it.

Eg the forces that used drones.

Very true, and I can see why people didn't feel confident enough to argue, and to challenge any fine that might ensue. But again, this is the fault of Johnson and his government.

Derbyshire are a law unto themselves. I'll never forget that coffee cup=picnic incident in the 2021 lockdown.

There was also a lot of "it's not in the spirit of the law" bandied about for things that were perfectly legal.

There was, and I think even from police at some point. We'll never know how many people were fined because of some bullshitted interpretation of the regulations and just paid the £60 for an easy life.

We went on holiday a few times and were always lucky to pass all the tests etc. We went to Spain and had to isolate when we got back, no problem, got daily phone calls to check but me and DH had to have separate calls. Nobody checked on the DC and DD went off to Wales with her BF's family.
THEN we had a call to say someone on the plane had tested positive so we now had to quarantine as well as isolate (again nothing about the DC)
So we then got 4 calls a day.
They used to ask if i was isolating and I would say no but I WAS quarantining, and then I used to say the opposite to the quarantining call!

I was one, I didn't want publicity so I just paid up and got on with things. It bloody stung though. I honestly was like a child, telling everyone it was so unfaiiiiiir.

It led to me reading the entire covid act. I could have written a better legal implement with one hand behind my back and blindfolded. And I have zero legal training. I still wonder to this day how the hell any laws are enforced if they are as badly written as the covid act.

It was a particularly piss poor example of legislation! Both the law itself and the enforcement of it were appalling.

Between non-approved childcare and ensuring my DCs socialisation, I had more lockdown breaches than Boris himself, but never drew even the slightest bit of police attention. You had to be quite unlucky to be noticed, if going about it quietly. We did make plans about what to do though! If it had been for some bullshit like the takeaway coffee or can't stand in your own front garden episodes, I'd have challenged it and enjoyed kicking up as much fuss as possible. Nobody in my family would've allowed police entry without a warrant, so home wasn't too much of a worry, but if we'd been caught bang to rights out and about or whatever we'd have just paid it quickly. Priced it in.

And this of course is the major problem with fines based approaches, to anything. Some people can afford it, some people would be spending their electricity money.

During the time when total lockdown was over but testing was often required I wanted to take DD to a show but they said they wouldn't allow entrance unless we could provide proof of a negative result. Easily done for the adults but when I asked about DD, who must have been 12/13, they told me to do one of those home tests and then take a picture of it next to her passport. I dutifully did it as I wanted to see the show but it's obvious how pointless that was

I was unlucky and I think a neighbour dobbed me in, I was caught coming home from a dog walk. And when asked how long I'd been out I figured pointless lying, they probably know.
I did consider making a fuss, I'm certain most people with the breed of dogs would understand an hour is far from enough, but I do not want my face on TV or in papers so I sucked it up buttercup and paid just to have it over with.

And I know the mythical hour was bullshit, but small fine or my face all over the place where my old stalker would see it, no thank you.

You got fined for that? Wow. May I ask, which part of the UK were you in? Don't answer if it's too outing.

Oop north, I was out for 3 hours probably.

And this of course is the major problem with fines based approaches, to anything. Some people can afford it, some people would be spending their electricity money.
And Saint Boris kept saying "I've paid the fine, now pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease can we move on from the parties that never happened?" He made such a big deal of paying a £60 fine which was a bit of loose change to him, while people with far less wealth than him were being fined five-figure sums, while he and his merry men partied.

And the bullying and coercing people to be vaccinated, with the Archbishop of Canterbury getting involved. "Jesus would get vaccinated to protect others." There was a poster (which I think was banned) aimed at children, showing them in superhero costumes.

Then there's was the sheer amount of used masks found discarded in the streets. I used to pick them up and put them in the bin.
I know somebody who packaged them up nicely, and sent them to Downing Street, taking them to another town to post them, so they would not be traced back to her. What about the poor staff at Downing street who had to open them, I hear you ask? They had their frequent "essential for motivation" parties to comfort them.

Wow. I'd been wondering if you were in Wales or Scotland where the restrictions were sometimes stricter. I wonder whether that one would even have stood if you'd challenged it.

Hopefully you don't do any favours or anything to ever benefit that neighbour.

There wasn’t ever an amount of time you were allowed out for though? What did they fine you for?

In my area (Yorkshire) we had more lockdowns etc than a lot of other areas due to rates of infection. The way it was done was by local authority so people in small rural villages got lumped in with people in areas where there were frequent flauting of rules, multi generation families and low uptake of vaccines.
I think we had more time in lockdown than anywhere else in The UK

In the North West we were in the highest tier three for more time than most, and the restriction was you could only leave the house for a ‘reasonable excuse’ (and walking a dog fell into that category) and not travel unnecessarily out of the area, but there was no rules about exactly how long you could be outside of the house for.

I mean tier 4, I’d forgotten how many there were - but the highest was 4 not 3.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5fecb6bed3bf7f08a02c8829/COVID-19_Tier_Posters_16_December_2020_04.pdf

The detail I dont remember, it was as the thread title almost 5 years ago, but something something, covid rules, non essential something.

It sounds dodgy, but there was a lot of it around. This isn't the first time I've heard of someone with a dubious sounding fine who, understandably, paid £60 not to have to think about it again. It's something we should all be concerned about, whatever our views on the legitimacy of the restrictions.

Tristan Kirk is a court reporter who highlighted some really sad and unjust cases of fines.

Absolutely, it’s shocking that people were fined for stuff like this and I can totally see how many would just pay it rather than deal with the stress but it’s absolutely awful and wasn’t even against any of the Covid guidelines.

I want to know:
Why Do I Require A Threat Of Imminent Apocalypse To Finally Get Abs??!!

Could someone please recreate the conditions for me (media storm, Cobra meetings, threat to life) so I can get motivated for daily workouts again?
Thank you in advance.

Love this! 🤣🤣🤣