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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Open the garden centres and stay alert

73 replies

WhiteWitch007 · 10/05/2020 13:31

Excellent. I can go to a garden centre and stay alert, in case a massive man-eating plant gobbles me up mid-purchase.

Seriously. In advance of the revised message this evening, WTF does this actually translate as to most people?

OP posts:

ineedaholidaynow · 10/05/2020 14:08

@KKSlider but that is not the roadmap he is going to announce tonight

gamerchick · 10/05/2020 14:10

To me this message translates as a huge increase in infection numbers two weeks from now swiftly followed a further lockdown

I also think this is the plan because, like that's what was told to us right at the beginning. Why would that have changed, even if it is being done by stealth now?

Gustavo1 · 10/05/2020 14:14

Surely, you’re not more likely to catch the virus in a garden centre than in a supermarket!
I assume this is a way to get some areas of the economy started again. You can stay just as safe in a range of stores as you can in Tesco.

thatwouldbeanecumenicalmatter · 10/05/2020 14:14

Watch with Boris

😂😂

CocoCorona · 10/05/2020 14:16

It means that they’ve weathered the first wave. Now that flu season is on a decline and we’re coming towards summer, hospitals are generally less busy so it’s time to unleash the second wave so that more people can become infected and become immune/die during the summer so by the time we get to autumn and winter there’ll be less chance of getting it and we might have a vaccine by then.

It’s herd immunity. And it’s what was decided by all the scientific experts months ago.

KingaRoo · 10/05/2020 14:17

Be alert. Your country needs lerts.

LucyBurton · 10/05/2020 14:18

I've been an avid Boris supporter for many years now! I will do whatever the government deems okay! If Boris says its okay to go pick up some peonies to brighten up my home office i'm completely fine with that!

happysunr1se · 10/05/2020 14:20

Garden centres are the type of places that a lot of people go to as a couple of hours entertainment and will walk out empty handed after enjoying looking at the nice plants. I have done this myself many times.

Normally that isn't a problem, but in the current climate, you don't really want people just bumbling around in the garden centre with no purpose.

There have been previous threads about people popping to supermarkets for just crisps and alcohol or whatever and other posters saying this is not essential and getting quite angry about it.

What if I queue up for 30 minutes, go in the garden centre, have a wander round and come out with a giant plastic gnome, but no live plants. Or come out with nothing, but I had a nice time.
Is that OK?
Is that useful?
Are staff going to judge purchases?

Foobydoo · 10/05/2020 14:22

I'm getting so sick of ridiculous, patronising soundbites.
Other countries are getting clear, honest communication and plans and citizens are treated like adults.
We get cbbc style covid videos and bluster and lies with a few soundbites thrown in. This government obviously think we are all stupid.

ineedaholidaynow · 10/05/2020 14:24

But aren't we getting our plan this evening?

TheoriginalLEM · 10/05/2020 14:24

It's the vagueness of it.

Stay home as much as possible? Isn't that basically what people are doing now?

picklemewalnuts · 10/05/2020 14:24

It means we get to choose what level of risk to accept, and where to take those risks.

So the person who lives in a flat can finally get out and hang around in the open air without being rebuked by all and sundry. And people like me who have basically not been out- I've been in one supermarket, once since this began- can carry on basically staying home.

Elephantonascooter · 10/05/2020 14:26

I live in a 2 bed top floor flat with a toddler.. I can't wait for my trip to the garden center
And I haven't been alert since October 2018, like many parents!
We will do what we need to but this is shit

HandfulOfFlowers · 10/05/2020 14:31

It means we are starting to move on from "staying at home" being the default setting. It means we can go out more than in the previous seven weeks. It's a slogan for God's sake, it's not meant to carry all the details of the easing of restrictions!

Saints13 · 10/05/2020 14:37

Garden centres opening are something I agree with.

I also support the Scots and Welsh governments not changing the advice.

BeforeIPutOnMyMakeup · 10/05/2020 14:42

@Elephantonascooter all I've been to sell house plants.

Have fun keeping your toddler away from them...

Mum2Girls19 · 10/05/2020 14:57

Does this mean that we are out of lockdown and can go back to work?

Stay at home as much as you can...is not the same message as you must stay at home..
Be alert..to what...its a invisible deadly virus who holds no prisoners...

DianaT1969 · 10/05/2020 15:10

Stay alert to potential methods of transmission?
Stay alert to symptoms?

CasperGutman · 10/05/2020 15:21

It's a slogan for God's sake, it's not meant to carry all the details of the easing of restrictions!
What are the details of the easing of the restrictions? The restrictions were legally enforceable, backed up with a fine. Will "going to the garden centre" be added to the list of approved reasons for going out? Or will the lockdown law cease and be replaced by people just going out whenever they like as long as they're "alert"?

YANBU, OP. It's massively unclear, and the explanation raises more questions. For example, "Stay home as much as possible" could mean not going out at all for any reason - many people have proved this is quite possible over the last six weeks or more - or it could mean stay home whenever you don't need to go and look vaguely at lavender plants, decide not to buy any, and go home again, stopping only to pop to the shop for a bottle of beer and a lottery ticket.

flowery · 10/05/2020 15:27

”I despair of the public today if they honestly don’t know what this means.”

Feel free to despair of me. Stay alert - look out for spiky balls of virus hurtling towards you at speed? Oh no, hang on, we can’t see it.... Stay alert looking out for people sneezing on you?

How is staying alert different from/better than social distancing?

ineedaholidaynow · 10/05/2020 15:33

But we haven’t been given all the full details yet. Do people genuinely believe this is all Boris is going to say tonight?

GreytExpectations · 10/05/2020 15:36

Good grief. What is wrong with you people? Just wait for 7pm for the full announcement and then you can have your moan understand what it means and what next steps are. None of you are likly to be experts either so not sure why you think you know better. Most of Mumsnet still don't comprehend the fact that lockdown isn't to eradicate the virus but to reduce the strain on NHS but slowing the spread.

FlamingoAndJohn · 10/05/2020 15:37

I despair of the public today if they honestly don’t know what this means.

Given that people clearly struggled with ‘stay at home’ I can see why many people don’t understand the flim-flam that is ‘stay alert’.

GreytExpectations · 10/05/2020 15:38

What are the details of the easing of the restrictions? The restrictions were legally enforceable, backed up with a fine. Will "going to the garden centre" be added to the list of approved reasons for going out? Or will the lockdown law cease and be replaced by people just going out whenever they like as long as they're "alert"?

You know where and when you might get the answers to the above. At. The. 7pm. Announcement. Today. Its not hard to understand

ineedaholidaynow · 10/05/2020 15:41

It is quite scary how people are not getting that we are going to get told more at 7pm. How difficult is that to understand?

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