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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think it really doesn't matter what the rules are now?

215 replies

Ultrasoft · 23/05/2020 07:32

No-one's going to follow them.

I am a real rule follower. I've done everything by the book since day one and despite all the hysteria about people breaking rules, so has almost everyone I know.

But when the man who effectively runs the country and wrote the rules makes it clear they don't matter I feel like something of a mug for having been so "good".

I haven't seen my parents or been anywhere outside my town in weeks but he was fine with travelling all that distance with symptoms to see his.

AIBU to think whatever the next/current phase rules are it will be very difficult to get the public to comply?

OP posts:
Peregrina · 23/05/2020 08:24

You may be able to go to the beach, but there has been so much criticism for people being out and about.

Original poster
Ultrasoft · 23/05/2020 08:24

@Peregrina people are allowed to go to the beach this weekend, provided they go in family groups and stay 2m apart. I know the press has been stirring things up but most people in the pictures this week were doing nothing outside the guidance. DC on the other hand....

OP posts:
HandsOffMyRights · 23/05/2020 08:24

He needs to go for this.

My mother lives 80 miles away and I can't see her.

I haven't taken my children any distance. What if there had been a breakdown or a crash involving hospital?

He was also fine to infect his elderly parents it seems.

He's a selfish prick.

oldmum22 · 23/05/2020 08:25

I have made a cup of tea and will wait for the excuses to come from the Tory Party HQ .
I have no doubt he will be absolved of his lack of care in sticking to the guidelines. DC is the man behind the Tory Party and without him, Boris Johnson will flounder even more than he is at the moment.

lljkk · 23/05/2020 08:25

I don't care what other people did or do.
I'll keep in the law & otherwise follow my conscience.

Original poster
Ultrasoft · 23/05/2020 08:26

@Splodgetastic but the other household members are supposed to isolate for 14 days, which would have included the child. If they did that, how did parents help with childcare? I actually think the travel is the bigger issue though.

OP posts:
EdwinaMay · 23/05/2020 08:30

Better he and his wife risked going into Hospital (like Boris) and the kids were taken into care - that's def what I would have done - a spell in a children's home would have taught my DCs to appreciate me more, good experience for them.
Oh, hang on they might have infected the Children's Home oooooo tricky !

eeehbyegum · 23/05/2020 08:31

@Peregrina so to your question - yes it is ok if everyone goes to the beach provided they exercise social distancing.

Might not be ideal but it’s not flouting rules.

Original poster
Ultrasoft · 23/05/2020 08:32

Haha the idea that DCs child would have ended up in a children's home if both parents (who were fully able to travel) ended up in hospital.

OP posts:
MeganBacon · 23/05/2020 08:32

I'm a fairly risk averse person so will not be "out and about" even if the rules are relaxed. I'll be setting my own minimum standards to exceed whatever the government recommends, but I will go back to work on the tube every day when asked to because I am even more worried about the economy.

Peregrina · 23/05/2020 08:33

That might be now - that it's OK to drive 100 miles to the beach. At the time he was flouting the rules, not only was he supposedly ill, but the rules were much stricter then.

eeehbyegum · 23/05/2020 08:34

@Peregrina granted, but that’s not what you said.

Original poster
Ultrasoft · 23/05/2020 08:36

Yes of course Peregrina but you said people would go to the beach as a result of this, which they may, but they can, within the rules.

Personally, I shall be staying well away because I hate crowded beaches and BH traffic at any time.

OP posts:
eeehbyegum · 23/05/2020 08:36

@Peregrina ‘If the fine weather holds and with a Bank Holiday this Monday, it will be OK then if everyone goes to the beach?’

Yes! In theory

MeganBacon · 23/05/2020 08:37

I don't think people will follow Cummings' example. I don't care really what he does. I'll do what I think is sensible.

Nsky · 23/05/2020 08:40

Me too.
Living on my own is tough, I feel like a caged animal, it just all needs to end

bigbluebus · 23/05/2020 08:41

One of the many sayings that my dear old dad (God rest his soul) used to say was "two wrongs don't make a right". It's something I've never forgotten and anyone with a modicum of common sense will see that and not follow the poor example of some of those seemingly responsible for running this country.

Schmoana · 23/05/2020 08:44

I really don’t get this. They were ill enough to need childcare support, but well enough to drive 240 miles. Why on earth would he even consider that visit, what a knob.

God help all the single parents out there that have to cope on their own if they get this illness.

He broke the law. He has to go.

aliceinsunderland44 · 23/05/2020 08:44

Yes I said this when the new guidance cam3 out. A lot of it is open to interpretation and deliberately unclear. It's flawed in so many ways that people will just do what they like now. Many weren't even abiding by full lockdown when it was in place.

As much as I believe in common sense and making responsible choices I also believe the government who are working with experts needed to give us better advice. We have all been let down.

In our household nothing is changing but it's sad to see the amount of people who seem to think it's all over now.

Everytimeref · 23/05/2020 08:44

The Tory party have already came out and stated it was ok because he stayed in a different property. So it was ok to travel to a second home???? .... Thought not.

Original poster
Ultrasoft · 23/05/2020 08:45

I agree with your dad bigbluebus but I don't think his saying applies here.

The man who wrote the rules didn't think it was wrong and the experts in government are trying to tell us he wasn't wrong, so presumably it wouldn't be wrong for others to follow suit. It's not about doing it just because he did, it's that his actions and the defense of them destroy the credibility of the advice.

OP posts:
unlikelytobe · 23/05/2020 08:45

I'm not sure DC can be made to 'go' as others have because his role is a nebulous one. He's too important to Boris and has an ego the size of Texas. The rules do not apply to him, naturally, or can be bent to his will. The rest of us should not follow his twatty example.

Original poster
Ultrasoft · 23/05/2020 08:46

How did the parents help with childcare if the child (from the infected household) stayed in a separate property? The travel was wrong anyway but they really do think we're stupid.

OP posts:
etopp · 23/05/2020 08:46

I haven't followed the visitation rules because they have clearly been nonsense all along. I have followed social distancing rules when out and about, not least because I would be an arse if I decided that my anger about the whole lockdown trumped other people's belief in social distancing. Shop assistants etc are, after all, only doing their job when they implement the rules. It doesn't mean they believe in them any more than I do.

Anyway, I don't know why anyone would become exercised about what a particularly unpleasant politician gets up to. What surprises me more is that so many people have wholeheartedly swallowed the 'don't see the people you love, because you will kill them if you do' message. If you believe you've done the right thing, then it's a bit pointless to be angry with someone else for not doing so.

Or is it more the case that there's a lot of frustration because people are realising that the rules were never meant to be implemented quite so fanatically anyway, and are now feeling a bit silly for having done so?

Spillinteas · 23/05/2020 08:48

Is there not a designated area for these threads?

It’s like Brexit threads all over again

Swipe left for the next trending thread