The beach down south/bbc news tonight

[Milssofadoesntreallyfit]

I'm mean, yes I want things back to normal BUT I am still concerned in case we get a spike again. I agree we all need to be careful BUT clearly all these people just thought F* it.
All we've put up with so far with lock down and it seems every one on the beach in question decided to piss it into the wind.

If I were the government I would think I couldn't trust people to use sense at all and put lockdown back in place until either a vaccination or until people realised that if they want lockdown relaxed then they need to prove they can be trusted to show a bit of caution.

Rant over.

@Coronabegone

See my reply to @letmethinkaboutitfornow above.

@AllTheWhoresOfMalta

I don’t blame people. It makes me cross, but I don’t blame them. Boris and this shitshow of a government brought this on by sending such mixed messages over what people can and can’t do and treating a selected few people with entirely double standards. People are bored and off work and school and absolutely sick of the same Groundhog Day they’ve had for months, they’re trying to entertain themselves. This is all on Johnson and the Cummings debacle in my opinion. Even the most sensible decided to throw in the towel of lockdown after that.

I agree entirely

I'm sure the models have included these kinds of behaviours and still support the easing of lockdown restrictions.
Yes, the behaviours of these numpties is annoying but unfortunately it's difficult to prevent them without impacting on the freedoms of others.
It's a balancing act, underpinned by data.

We need to pray for rain so people stay at home

I think it looks totally grim to be on a crowded beach like that even without it being a pandemic.

Quite apart from the obvious risks, other countries were looking on. Don’t be surprised if countries open their borders to the rest of Europe but not to the UK.

If I was the Spanish health minister I wouldn’t want the idiots we saw on the beaches today in a Spanish airport. So they may have screwed up any chance of a summer holiday for the rest of us

@Msmcc1212 Well said 🙏

Quite apart from the obvious risks, other countries were looking on. Don’t be surprised if countries open their borders to the rest of Europe but not to the UK.

I think they should all ban Brits.

Can I just point out that anyone predicting a perceptible spike (as hordes of patients, visible to the naked eye without careful analysis of graphs) in cases 14 days after any mass breaking of lockdown is always going to be wrong?

It's not how exponential growth works. You don't go from nothing to oh-my-gawd-world-is-ending at day 14. You need a few generations of imperceptible increase (because even tripling in cases isn't visible when you have very low numbers to start with), and then you go to oh-fuck-what-happened. However, multiple branching chains of transmission are exactly what lockdown is supposed to stop! There might have been a few cases of people contracting coronavirus in the community as a result of VE day congas, but that doesn't mean they passed it on to three other people themselves. If those people mostly social distanced the fortnight after, they easily might not.

Right at the beginning Sir Patrick Vallance said 80%

Yes. But months later, after far more research, is it still 80%?

It's unlikely to cause a spike, it is causing a lot of aggravation for the local population and the police.
They still have the power to close beaches, perhaps it's time to do that.

Working class people have a long history of holidaying in popular resorts like Bournemouth

But why travel down from Birmingham, loads were apparently, when there’s loads of coast line around that area... surely Blackpool is closer or anywhere really

SunflowerProsecco

Well said! Much mor succinct than my tirade

@DishingOutDone

Working class people have a long history of holidaying in popular resorts like Bournemouth

Its them chavs wot dun it.

That’s the subtext, right?

Makes a lot of sense @potholeparadise

There is only one solid reason why Britain won't experience a second wave.

How can it be a second wave when we never emerged from the first wave?

But why travel down from Birmingham, loads were apparently, when there’s loads of coast line around that area... surely Blackpool is closer or anywhere really

There's no coast anywhere near Birmingham. Probably the closest is Rhyl but that's wales. Blackpool may not be quite as far as Bournemouth but still a long way and when you get there .... it's Blackpool.

Poor Blackpool!!

@verybritishproblems, you display a woeful lack of geographical knowledge of the British Isles. There’s only 55 miles difference between heading north to Blackpool vs heading south to Bournemouth from Birmingham. Birmingham is in the middle of the country, there is no coastline nearby.

Or is your argument that common people should stick to staying up north?

And Blackpool was probably busy enough - I assume it gets people from Manchester and the Leeds conurbations etc.

If you drive to Bournemouth and you see the absolute fucking state of the beach like that then you turn the fuck around and go somewhere less busy. ‘Working class’ people are perfectly capable of figuring that out for themselves .

So aside from this government’s response to coronavirus being a murderous joke, yes people do have to take some personal responsibility for their own behaviour to try to collectively protect society from the transmission of coronavirus.

@SunflowerProsecco - you are way too extreme...
We have been in lockdown and made sacrifices for the shielding community for months
Our economy and the majority of the rest of the country cannot go on like that and according to the scientist, it’s not necessary. Shielding people can keep shielding while to rest of us are trying to ensure they can be protected. We generate income and can go shopping so they can take their online slots...etc

People now are allowed to make decisions.

If they need to shield, we are here to enable it. That’s the way I see it.

Birmingham/ West Mids tends to go west for beaches, often to Mid/ North Wales which isn't an option at present. So that's extra pressure on English beaches. For the effort taken, Bournemouth would usually be nicer than similar travel times to Blackpool or east to Skegness.

Don't call them idiots. They're just people like you and me trying to make the best decision for themselves and their families. You might not agree with their decision but they (majority) haven't broken any laws. If this turns into another health disaster (and I'm pretty sure evidence is showing that outside in strong sunlight are conditions for low viral transmission) then it will be the fault of the government for confusing guideline changes.
You still have the choice to shield yourself as much or as little as you would like to.

And yes, there is a long tradition of people from Midlands travelling down to Weston Super Mare or Bournemouth for their family outings. It's not unusual or surprising, just as I (living in Gloucestershire) enjoy travelling down to Devon or Cornwall.

Stop being so angry at other people. I might not choose to go to a popular beach on the hottest day of the year, but I'm still able to work and am lucky enough to have a garden. I don't judge others who are not so lucky.

I also think that if people are waiting for COVID-19 to somehow disappear, they will be having a long wait. That means some people will need to wait indoors. Not everyone can though.

If I was the Spanish health minister I wouldn’t want the idiots we saw on the beaches today in a Spanish airport. So they may have screwed up any chance of a summer holiday for the rest of us

And why would you want a Spanish holiday? So that you can go and sit on a beach in the sun? These people had a day off work, (potentially months off work) and wanted to spend it at the beach in the sun. It’s totally legal and allowed now, and there’s literally nothing else to do! People are bored out of their fucking minds after months of lockdown. Many of whom live in towns or cities and haven’t been allowed to use their parks and green spaces for most of that time.

But all the coast dwellers now who’d be clamouring for the tourist cash at any other time are now aggrieved that anyone else dare visit.

Obviously they shouldn’t be littering or shitting in people’s gardens. But if the government had made sure the infrastructure was in place with toilets, hotels and cafes etc being opened before allowing a free-for-all to travel and spend a day (but not a night) away from home, what the hell did anyone expect would happen?!

Couldn't think of anywhere worse to go at the moment. Think l will stick to my local park this summer rather than fighting for a parking space and a bit of space on a beach.