Kit Malthouse wants people to call the police if they see more than 6 people eating supper next door

[Jourdain11]

Is it not dangerous to encourage people to behave like vigilantes?! I mean, okay, call the police if there's a massive house party - but if there were a group of people next door I'd personally want to give my neighbours the benefit of the doubt.

This is just encouraging snoopers and also is going to result in a massive waste of police time! I have a friend who is a police officer and she said during lockdown, the phone was ringing off the hook with important issues such as "I've seen Mrs James going out of her front door three times today"....

The thing is, we’re relying on a group effort. And when you’re constantly abiding the rules it’s incredibly frustrating to see others flouting the results so much!! I wouldn’t call the police but I’d be annoyed.

It's a well used method.
Get people to turn on each other instead of looking at you with critical eyes. Divide and rule.

It's nuts - we get on well with our neighbours, but I don't know them well enough to know exactly what's going on in their lives. They could be in a bubble with the hypothetical extra people in the garden. They could be offering them support because they are vulnerable people. They could be working from home, and have colleagues round for a meeting (we have done this). The list goes on....

I just accept there will be some anti-social rule breakers and ignore it.

It was always going to be the case that some people would not follow the rules. Most will, and that’s what matters.

I am not going to start reporting people.

It’s awful the way we are encouraged to turn on each other.

Hmm. I encourage everyone to keep an eye on the Malthouse household. And the rest of them. But leave your neighbours alone.

@VettiyaIruken

It's a well used method. Get people to turn on each other instead of looking at you with critical eyes. Divide and rule.

I entirely agree The “ government “ - and I use the term loosely with regard to this rabble - want is to put the responsibility for their eleventh hour “advice” on the police so they can blame them They also want us to turn on each other instead of them.

It should be the government’s collective heads on a plate not COVID rule breakers or anyone else

Apparently it was always said that the UK would never needs an equivalent of the Stasi because we are so ready to judge each other.

This is just normalising spying on your neighbours/friends/family. Its not a good thing.

@Vintagevixen

Apparently it was always said that the UK would never needs an equivalent of the Stasi because we are so ready to judge each other.

This is just normalising spying on your neighbours/friends/family. Its not a good thing.

The curtain twitchers will be in their element

There's no way I'll be reporting my friends and neighbours.

No way will I be reporting my neighbours

This is just normalising spying on your neighbours/friends/family. Its not a good thing
What you say is true
it is also true that the virus transmitts under conditions where people are gathered together indoors
We need to reduce transmission of the virus

There are so many innocent situations which could be reported by zealots. For example, I take my daughter to a friend's house. They are a family of 5 and they happen to be all at home (or in the garden or whatever). I go to pick daughter up and friend's mum asks me in for 5 minutes. Hey presto, we've broken the rule of 6 and a bleary-eyed neighbour spotted this. No matter that by the time the police arrived both daughter and I would be long gone and having the police do a pointless house call is probably more Covid-risky than anything that happened before. (Not to mention that, ironically, it would also break the rule of 6 again...)

You have to wonder what planet some people are living on.

Maybe in Kit Malhouse's world the police have time to turn up for such nonsense but for most people who report something like a burglary, they'll be lucky if the police turn up at all. They certainly won't get the police blue lighting it to make sure they catch the culprit red handed.

Are the police really going to come out and arrest the Jones down the road because they've got 7 people sitting round their dining room table? Utter nonsense.

I've kept everything we've been asked to do but I certainly won't be reporting anyone; not unless it's a bloody great rave.

Anyone eating “supper” needs reporting to Police immediately

Thie argument was lost back in April at Barnard Castle. Boris and his merry band of marshalls can fuck right off!

BTW I heard Kit Malthouse being interviewed this morning and like most reports in the media, his actual words were nothing like what was reported

How long until a member of the government is found breaching this? 2 days?

Without being outing, my friend lives in an area where the police have a dedicated and very critical online system for neighbours to report other neighbours. This enables them to direct all informants to a place where nobody checks, leaving other contact points open to deal with important stuff like actual police work. Not that the police would tell you that.

@Heffalooomia

This is just normalising spying on your neighbours/friends/family. Its not a good thing What you say is true it is also true that the virus transmitts under conditions where people are gathered together indoors We need to reduce transmission of the virus

Yes but to place the responsibility for people who don’t follow these rules on an already crippled police force is just not on

Perhaps if the government had got a handle on things when they emergency like quarantining, not sending Covid into care homes, not dithering over masks, not abandoning community testing, not royally fucking to track and taste oh and not breaking the rules themselves then we might not be in this position again.

Also encouraging people to go out and eat on the cheap and get pissed in the pub has been who knows how damaging.

The whole thing is just an absolute shambles

Sadly there enough people who will fall for it all and BJ will carry on getting away with it al

I wouldnt want to report my neighbours.

You have no idea of what people have got going on in their lives for one thing.

Families with four or more children are going to be able to see no one and I wouldn’t judge them if they broke the rule.

I don't think you understand what 'vigilantes' are...

Being a vigilante would mean you'd clock more than 6 people next door and break their window / beat them up / pour petrol through their front door.

What's being discussed here is the same as calling the police if you know someone is drink driving. They are committing a criminal offence which may or may not result in harm to other human beings.

Personally I don't take enough notice of my neighbours to notice if they have 7 people over for dinner.

Nor would I know if the extra person was in their bubble or whatever.

I would call the police for a house party though because it's unnecessary, stupid and irresponsible.

The only households I’m watching are the Johnsons and the Cummings.

@wheresmymojo

I don't think you understand what 'vigilantes' are...

Being a vigilante would mean you'd clock more than 6 people next door and break their window / beat them up / pour petrol through their front door.

What's being discussed here is the same as calling the police if you know someone is drink driving. They are committing a criminal offence which may or may not result in harm to other human beings.

I understand exactly what a vigilante is, and this situation does fit the definition, because the actual law enforcement agencies don't want people to do it.