Why is Boris actively advising people to go against his own government’s official message?

[Ethelfleda]

From PMQs:

“The prime minister also told the nation to go back to work, emphasising that the message to stay at home had outlived its usefulness and “people should try to lead their lives more normally”

From Govt website:

stay at home as much as possible
work from home if you can

So... are we expecting them to change the ‘stay alert’ message now??
Did he mean get back to work if furloughed or back to your place of work if you’ve been WFH?

I really wish the message was clearer

Thanks ScribblyGum

It’s been a while!!

I’m wfh at the moment and it’s very successful. There is no aspect of my job that needs me to rush back to the office. In fact they get more out of me as I tend to keep working during my old commute time.

Sometimes we get bits from the local bakeries etc and our food bill from supermarkets has shot up. Also, when we couldn’t have a holiday in May I used that saving as a budget do buy outdoor furniture and gardening stuff. So my actual spend hasn’t dropped significantly.

If Boris sends me physically back to work I will be taking a packed lunch, not rushing back to any coffee shops. I may lapse and buy a Greggs vegan sausage roll now and again, but I don’t think that £1 will save the economy.

@wanderings

Because Project Fear "you're all going to die if you don't do as you're told" worked too well aided and abetted by Mumsnet ; some people got used to the lockdown lifestyle; and now many people are too afraid to go out and spend the money they don't have, so he's trying to undo Project Fear, to get the economy going again, after he and his men stopped it dead.

I knew this would happen, and that he'd have to back-pedal once he saw the unintended consequences, i.e. people not spending money. By the time the real consequences kick in (deaths from lockdown), he'll most likely be out of office.

This! I despair of the behavioural experts they have had advising them throughout this. They spend months making people too petrified to leave their houses and then wonder why no one is rushing out to the shops/restaurants the minute they open!

Because Dominic Cummings has told him to say it & Boris is whipped.

Boris just does what he’s told.

My bet is someone forgot to update that line in that website. Not a big deal.

Why is Boris actively advising people to go against his own government’s official message?

It's not so much that he is actively advising to go against his own government's advice, it is more a case that he has never been bothered enough to read the advice. He is simply not interested.

Maybe if the government put as much energy into creating sensible advice as they did coming home with stupid slogans, then we’d not have this nonsense.

OP you need to remember that Johnson would have been a timeshare salesman back in the day or the guy that scams your pension had he not gone into politics.

Fwiw down in sunny cornwall, soooo very much is back up to how it was, probably because a heck of alot never shut down properly in the first place because devon/cornwall was very much earlier in the CV curve when national lockdown announced.

A great pity he didn't take CV seriously and we didn't lock down earlier, it was what a large section of SAGE wanted but were not listened too.

I interpreted it the same as LondonJax too. People working from home as a cultural shift is actually great for lots of people P, the environment and could potentially save businesses money. No one is going to keep paying for empty office buildings. However it will destroy city centres, small convenience stores, sandwich shops, etc. But what I think they’re really worried about is a drop in ‘value’ of all the office blocks and massively inflated property in central London. IIRC lots of investment firms invest into theses types of developments and lots of pension pot money is tied up worth those firms (someone correct me if I’m wrong on that). It could be quite devastating for certain shareholders accumulation of wealth. From a virus perspective I think it’s mad to ask people to back into large office buildings. Also if one person tests pos (Very likely) the whole lot has to be shut down and deep cleaned and presumably everyone who’s been in contact self isolate for 2 weeks. It’s not going to worth it for most businesses if they’re achieving the same productivity with people WFH.

@InOutofmymind

OP you need to remember that Johnson would have been a timeshare salesman back in the day or the guy that scams your pension had he not gone into politics.

Fwiw down in sunny cornwall, soooo very much is back up to how it was, probably because a heck of alot never shut down properly in the first place because devon/cornwall was very much earlier in the CV curve when national lockdown announced.

A great pity he didn't take CV seriously and we didn't lock down earlier, it was what a large section of SAGE wanted but were not listened too.

Pretty much everything shutdown down here. All holiday accommodation, attractions, shops and obviously offices, It was dead.

Where I am there are more people around, but nothing like it normally is. Went out for a drink yesterday and the place we went would normally be rammed with people in this weather. It wasn't at all busy.

Unfortunately we have a PM that only talks gibberish.

The definition of gibberish is rapid talk that is impossible to understand.
An example of gibberish is when someone is rambling on about things that make absolutely no sense.

Johnson is spectacularly unsuitable to guide the country through this crisis.

I wish that MPs did listen to us Iggly but their dismissive attitude over covidiot Cummings showed me how little regard they have of public sentiment & how little care they take in their mixed messaging. We have a terrible Government.

@cdtaylornats

My bet is someone forgot to update that line in that website. Not a big deal.

It really is.

Of course you can wfh forever, but it is not healthy. Put aside risk from Covid, and the need to the economy again, for one second. A family unit all being together 24/7 and not going out or doing anything or going anywhere is not a good thing. DD1 is reaching her limit and desperately wants to get back to London. She is meeting friends and colleagues every weekend now and they all feel the same. DD2 desperately needs to get back to school. DH and I have had enough of one another. It's time to move on.

Because it is a classic Boris move and classic Tory move- Pure individualism- confuse the public to the point that they make their own decisions and when the proverbial hits the fan, point the finger of blame back onto them- refuse any accountability and boast at how brilliant of a job they've done.
Truly world beating.

They've thrown the scientists under the bus, the care homes, the teachers, low paid workers- they're working their way through. Who is next?

@Baaaahhhhh

Of course you can wfh forever, but it is not healthy. Put aside risk from Covid, and the need to the economy again, for one second. A family unit all being together 24/7 and not going out or doing anything or going anywhere is not a good thing. DD1 is reaching her limit and desperately wants to get back to London. She is meeting friends and colleagues every weekend now and they all feel the same. DD2 desperately needs to get back to school. DH and I have had enough of one another. It's time to move on.

Why assume more people wfh long term means their family units not going out or doing anything? The one in no way means the other. In plenty of cases it will be the precise opposite, since some people will have a lot more time and money available for leisure if they're not commuting.

@LilMissRe

Because it is a classic Boris move and classic Tory move- Pure individualism- confuse the public to the point that they make their own decisions and when the proverbial hits the fan, point the finger of blame back onto them- refuse any accountability and boast at how brilliant of a job they've done. Truly world beating.

They've thrown the scientists under the bus, the care homes, the teachers, low paid workers- they're working their way through. Who is next?

If they keep going. There will be no one to vote Tory.... hopefully.

@baaaahhhhh that's a huge generalisation. Lots of people worked from home before this, including myself, and many of my friends. We have office areas and go to 'work' and spend more.time with our families outside of work because we aren't caught up in commuting etc. Absolutely nothing unhealthy about it. My health has actually been much better since I left office working, mental and physical

Of course it won't be the same for everyone and not everyone will have room for an office but to make a statement like long term working from home isn't healthy for anyone is rubbish. People wouldn't want to continue to do it if it made them feel awful and a LOT of people have no desire to return to commuting

@Mumratheevergiving

Unfortunately we have a PM that only talks gibberish.

The definition of gibberish is rapid talk that is impossible to understand.
An example of gibberish is when someone is rambling on about things that make absolutely no sense.

Johnson is spectacularly unsuitable to guide the country through this crisis.

I wish that MPs did listen to us Iggly but their dismissive attitude over covidiot Cummings showed me how little regard they have of public sentiment & how little care they take in their mixed messaging. We have a terrible Government.

This! Hugely embarrassed that people in this country voted on mass to deliver Boris Johnson as PM. We have another 4 years of this shit show to watch - can't see it getting any better.

@Nat6999

Several areas including Sheffield & Kirklees are in danger of going back into lockdown because of the number of cases, the only reason the government have released lockdown is for economic reasons, telling us to wear masks on public transport & in shops now makes no sense when we didn't at the height of the infection.

Sheffield is not in danger of going back into lockdown. www.thestar.co.uk/health/coronavirus/sheffield-has-higher-infection-rate-leicester-not-risk-local-lockdown-2899130

'Dr Andrew Lee, a reader of Public Health at Sheffield University, said: “Just looking at the absolute numbers themselves isn’t a good yardstick because it doesn’t show whether the numbers are rising or falling.

“What makes Sheffield different from Leicester is Sheffield’s number started from a very high level, whereas Leicester is the reverse and all of a sudden they had this large rise - basically one quarter of all the cases there happened in the first two weeks of June.”

'Leicester City Council reported 944 positive tests in the two weeks of the month to 23 June.

Dr Lee added: “We [in Sheffield] have not had this big surge and our number is the other way round – it’s dropping.”''

Infection levels appeared to be high in Sheffield for a number of reasons, but at least in part due to continuing to test everyone with symptoms, even when the government moved to only testing those admitted to hospital, and also to having a local track and trace system months before the national one was rolled out. So, it wasn't necessarily the case that Sheffield had an unusually high number of cases, more that they had more identified cases than other parts of the country. There was also the issue of a concentration of care homes in one area of the city which employed a lot of agency staff who moved between sites.

Anyhow, both the number of cases and the number of hospital admissions are rapidly falling in Sheffield.

www.thestar.co.uk/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-infection-rate-sheffield-drops-sharply-according-new-figures-2909392

I think it's actually far more depressing than people have said. We are a service economy, that is our largest sector. We've not supported UK manufacturing or been willing to buy UK goods, we've allowed British Businesses to be sold off (Caburys, British Steel, Jaguar etc) so unless we go back to using restaurants etc our economy won't recover. However I do think our mindset has changed. I don't want to spend £30 on fish and chips when I've found out I can make it healthier and tastier at home. I've always hated commuting and now my workplace has found its cheaper for me to wfh, and I'm working harder as I'm not as tired as I'm gaining 20hours a week from not traveling.

This! Hugely embarrassed that people in this country voted on mass to deliver Boris Johnson as PM. We have another 4 years of this shit show to watch - can't see it getting any better.

If it helps, they didn't. The Tories got 44% of votes cast, which amounted to about a third of the adult voting eligible population. Although we're still lumbered anyway...

lljkk

Some businesses closed that didn't need to.
My car mechanics shut shop for 3 months. They could have stayed open throughout.
I bet there are a lot like that. Still haven't reopened although could.

Maybe the owner/staff are shielding? How do you know what health conditions they may have?

This! Hugely embarrassed that people in this country voted on mass to deliver Boris Johnson as PM. We have another 4 years of this shit show to watch - can't see it getting any better.

How anybody thought he would do a good job is beyond me. He may have had an expensive education and throws in the odd Latin quote, but you can't polish a turd, he really is a bungling buffoon and not the smartest.

All he's good for is having his photo taken hanging from a zip wire, looking a complete twat.

If it helps, they didn't. The Tories got 44% of votes cast, which amounted to about a third of the adult voting eligible population. Although we're still lumbered anyway...

Which is a larger share of the vote than any winning party has had since 1979 - 40 years ago! If this government has no legitimacy in your eyes, then none has had any in most people’s adult lifetimes...

ZombieLizzieBennet Peterbishopssarcasticsmile and others.

A generalisation maybe, but one that is very common in my group, so a personal observation.

We are in a group of fairly senior management roles. All fairly large houses. All have home offices. All have teenagers. So, someone, in my house, me, has the home office. DH has set up an office in his bedroom, DD1 has done the same in her room since decamping from London, DD2 is in her room studying. So four people in each of their own rooms, sleeping and working all day in the same room. The don't save on the commuting as they are working through that time, so working long hours, just at home. Our friends are the same. These are people used to being out and about at meetings, flying to customers, spending time away, living a life. Yes, they also used to wfh quite often, but not continuously.

So, of course it works for some. Probably it's great if you have younger children, although that comes with it's own challenges. But for us, we need to get back to something "other", even a couple of days in the office/out and about would help.