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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think lockdown is now completely unenforceable?

92 replies

Cornana · 12/06/2020 01:50

First off, this is NOT a debate on people breaking lockdown. People are- not everyone- but it’s happening, yet some people still majorly adhere, and opinions on that are not really relevant to my post.

My question is, AIBU to think lockdown is now unenforceable and extremely hard to monitor? When it was essential travel only, and we could only go to the shops, it was probably easier. Now you can drive anywhere, you can go in someone’s house under bubble rules from Saturday, etc... AIBU to think it is now unenforceable and simply relies on people doing their part and listening to advice? And that this is less likely as people from non-single adult households are now going to think, “to hell with it?”

For example, I live alone and can now visit my partner. But if I didn’t live alone, no one would know if I went and saw my partner anyway. And if I didn’t live alone and wasn’t ‘allowed,’ I don’t honestly know how much longer I could last. That’s just an example of what I mean.

Side note, I’m glad about the new changes, I’m dying for social contact at this point.

OP posts:
B1rdbra1n · 12/06/2020 12:17

Lockdown is theoretically enforceable but it was never an enforced lockdown
as said it relied on a sense of civic duty
Of course there are advantages to enforced lockdown, but there are also disadvantages!
It's about weighing things up and choosing what appears to be the better option

Khione · 12/06/2020 12:39

Whilst Cumming is a twat I am not basing my life on what he does.

I will follow rules that make sense. Fuck it, I will be more 'good' than the roolz say I have to be most of the time. But I will not follow stupid rules about being with people who are also following the rules. I will wash my hands frequently. I won't spend more time than necessary closer than 1 - 2 m of people but, other than that, if I want to do something and that something is open - be it a shop, a pub or an plane I will do it. I certainly will not hold off seeing friends and family none of whom are currently working outside the home.

Alex50 · 12/06/2020 12:42

Don’t you think thousands meeting to protest are more likely to spread it than Cummings? We are not talking one day of protests, there has been protests round the country every day since. There are major protests being organised in London this weekend.

ChewChewIsMySpiritAnimal · 12/06/2020 13:05

Someone explain how the government know my name and phone number from me being in contact with someone who has it? If it's one of my friends, id already know.

B1rdbra1n · 12/06/2020 13:09

What we need is for behaviours which reduce transmission to become our automatic/default way of doing things

Kokeshi123 · 12/06/2020 13:34

The hypocrisy of people like Cummings and Ferguson will have destroyed a lot of goodwill.

The protests have politicized social distancing. I don't think it will be taken seriously again. Everyone will now have a politically motivated reason why they just HAVE to be break the rules.

NotEverythingIsBlackandWhite · 12/06/2020 13:38

If was never planned for lockdown to be enforceable. People generally comply when they might put others' or their own lives at risk.

I think there is a bit more traffic around but, so far, things are pretty much the same by me (outer suburb of a large city). Things might change on Saturday or Monday with the support bubbles and shops opening. I'm carrying on as I have been and following the rules. I haven't any interest in rushing out to buy clothes, shoes etc since seeing how much money I've saved during lockdown, although I'll go to a card shop in the hope that Fathers' Day cards will be in stock.

FluffyKittensinabasket · 12/06/2020 13:40

I’ve already stayed at parents and MILs house. And the police didn’t jump out of a bush to arrest me.

EasyAndy101 · 12/06/2020 13:40

It never was particularly enforceable and always required public compliance

Bargebill19 · 12/06/2020 13:50

Dominic Cummings did it for me. The only two things I’m not doing that I did before lockdown are 1) food shopping as I hate the queues and no toilets. So I send DH. 2) go to the gym and pool as they are still shut.
Otherwise life is normal.

Raaaa · 12/06/2020 13:58

Tbh I've never really followed it, not saying I met up with groups of friends, but I used my mum for childcare 🤷🏼‍♀️

theonlywayisapple · 12/06/2020 14:01

The hypocrisy of people like Cummings and Ferguson will have destroyed a lot of goodwill

Why haven’t you mentioned the 4 Labour MPs? Do they get a let off as they’re in the correct party?

theonlywayisapple · 12/06/2020 14:02

@ChewChewIsMySpiritAnimal

Someone explain how the government know my name and phone number from me being in contact with someone who has it? If it's one of my friends, id already know.
If it was your friend, they’d have gave them it
ineedaholidaynow · 12/06/2020 14:08

Could be a work colleague.

In other countries you have to give your contact details when eating at a restaurant etc so if someone visiting there at the same time becomes ill then they will contact any other diners who were in their vicinity. I wonder if they will start doing that here once pubs etc are allowed to open.

zingally · 12/06/2020 14:15

It is now.

People have had enough. We can't live in solitary bubbles for the rest of our lives. There comes a time where you just go, "you know what? I'll take my chances."

It was my best friend's birthday yesterday, and we sat in her conservatory with the outside door open. I had a cup of coffee and a slice of cake, and it was almost normal.

I won't financially recover for this until well into next year, so I'm going to have coffee and cake with my bff, and try to be happy, damnit.

Paperdolly · 12/06/2020 14:39

If the ‘rules’ weren’t legally enforceable how come some drivers have been fined for travelling long distances?

Not condoning or up for a fight; just interested. Are the fines enforceable?

LellyMcKelly · 12/06/2020 14:42

It was all over the minute Cummings wasn’t prosecuted for flouting the law. We could basically do what we wanted after that.

EasyAndy101 · 12/06/2020 14:45

Why haven’t you mentioned the 4 Labour MPs? Do they get a let off as they’re in the correct party?

Ferguson isn't a politician and nobody on the other side of the house wrote the rules. Lots of people broke the rules, but when the architects of such rules do it does a fair bit too diminish their position

ekidmxcl · 12/06/2020 14:47

Cummings and the handling of that situation massively undermined lockdown and that was the beginning of the end of it.

Then, as rules became relaxed, people were unsure of what was/not OK.

Then hundreds of people were on beaches.

Then thousands went marching. That was the final nail in the coffin. There is lockdown left IMO, it is all a joke. Stuff is shut, but individuals are doing whatever they want.

EasyAndy101 · 12/06/2020 14:48

If the ‘rules’ weren’t legally enforceable how come some drivers have been fined for travelling long distances?

What I meant by it wasn't really enforceable was that if you wanted to break the rules you could normally find an excuse

The "go out with as many members of your household" rule, which was constant, was a get out clause for meeting people and being allowed outside "once a day" was basically unenforceable

amijustparanoidorjuststoned · 12/06/2020 14:51

YANBU OP. My thoughts exactly. When shops reopen on Monday I don't even think people will be socially distancing. People are fed up and done with our incompetent government.

Alex50 · 12/06/2020 15:57

If everyone is fed up and no ones following the rules, we need to get schools open, or women are going to be financially reliant on the state or a man. Children need an education, young adults need structure and not left wondering the streets to cause trouble

lazylinguist · 12/06/2020 16:03

Not condoning or up for a fight; just interested. Are the fines enforceable?

There's a big difference between legally enforceable and practically enforceable. As others have said, it was never intended to be rigorously and frequently enforced by actual police interventions and fines etc, because that's not practical. The intention was voluntary compliance, which is what most people have been doing.

pigsDOfly · 12/06/2020 16:34

I find it very odd when people say that after Cummings going rogue, lockdown was finished for them.

Why would what someone else does, especially someone like Cummings, have so much impact on their behaviour, can't they think for themselves?

Of course in small ways it's impossible to enforce the lockdown, but I imagine that's taken into consideration when the government introduce these new guidelines, it will be calculated into the risks levels that a percentage of people will go beyond what they have said is now permissible.

The government would be pretty naive to assume everyone is going to keep everything to the letter.

However, we're still very limited in the ways we can ignore the advice.

There are no pubs or restaurants open, so no going to a pub or restaurant and sitting too close to the people at the next table or crowding four deep at the bar.

No theatres or cinemas open so no sitting next to any strangers while you watch a film when you should be 2 metre apart.

Going to the few shops that are able to open is going to be pretty joyless from the sound of it: queuing to get into each shop, only so many people in a shop at a time, one way systems, no trying anything on; couldn't be assed personally. I'm finding shopping online is working very well for me at the moment.

I go to the supermarket because I have to buy food. That's a miserable enough experience as it is, can't say I want to replicate it in any other sort of shop - I accidentally walked the wrong way down an aisle in the supermarket last time I was there, the looks I got you'd have thought I was kicking a kitten down the bloody aisle.

Apart from the large gatherings of protesters we're seeing at the moment and the huge crowds on beaches and other tourist spots, most people will only be breaking the new guidelines in a very small way and some people will still be sticking to them, even if that's because, like me, they can't be bothered to do otherwise.

Alex50 · 12/06/2020 16:37

There will be massive protests in London this weekend, thousands will be breaking the rules.