AIBU to think people will blame the PM for relaxing the rules rather than take personal responsibility if someone they see at Christmas is hospitalised with covid?

[PrincessNutNuts]

I think people will blame the government generally, and the Prime Minister personally, for relaxing the rules for five days at Christmas if the Christmas they had leads to a loved one being seriously ill with covid.

"The government shouldn't have let us do it if it wasn't safe." they'll say.

They won't take personal responsibility for it and admit they knew it wasn't safe - for instance - to mix school age children with elderly or Shielding people who don't see them regularly, and haven't seen people indoors for months.

What do you think? Will people hold their hands up and take responsibility for putting their loved ones at risk?

Or blame Boris?

People will blame Boris, your absolutely right

I think his whole strategy is designed so that nothing is actually his responsibility or fault
They could make the rules stronger but by issuing guidelines instead it means whatever happens isn’t the Governments fault

Yes definitely.

So should I blame myself when I go back to work in early January and catch Covid off a youngster, and then bring that home to a vulnerable relative?
The problem is that the people getting sick won't necessarily be the ones who fannied about over Christmas

I agree @Hoppinggreen. It’s been blatant the whole way through; advisory this, advisory that

They just can’t take responsibility for an unpopular decision that has to happen.

If it isn't safe (and based on what science advisors are saying it isn't) then Boris should have had a backbone and kept the restrictions.

He is gaslighting the country because infections will rise and then he'll say 'oooh but naughty naughty I did tell you that you to be careful and not to do anything'. He is always looking for someone else to blame.

Boris is Prime Minister. The buck rests with him for removing restrictions for 5 days, knowing that on 2 of those days there will be huge numbers of people desperate to see family they haven't seen in almost a year because they don't know when he's going to lock us down again.

I'm all for personal responsibility but right now the handling of Covid is a clusterfuck of incompetence and sheer negligence. As Prime Minister he has blood on his hands.

Of course everyone will blame Boris or someone else. No one takes responsibility for themselves any more just point the finger at others

Blame someone else there is a dearth of independent thinking, but also many people are switched on and wont put their loved ones at risk. I think this is the perfect compromise actually because as a Minister said on the Tv this am - everyone's circs are different, some people have a short distance to travel - some a long way - some people have already terminally ill relatives and this allows them to be seen etc.

Lola what rubbish !

We all know - the virus has not gone away , its still here , still bad, see people if you want but be careful?

He’s been pathetic. Whatever your views on the virus and how they’ve handled it, to say they can’t stop people “following their hearts” or whatever guff he came out with so they won’t bother is properly embarrassing.

This whole year has featured laws none of us ever imagined we’d live under in our wildest nightmares but the government have still made them. He’s terrified of “Boris cancels Christmas” following him around till the end of his days. No one can “cancel Christmas”. It’s a day in the calendar and it was always going to be shit this year given everything that’s going on.

I don't understand, if you don't want to mix households don't. People will blame the government, someone was on another thread saying they didn't want to mix but because the government had said it was ok they were getting jip off family.

We are choosing to do it but are able to self isolate 14 days beforehand.

@3inthefuckingmorning

People will blame Boris, your absolutely right

They would blame the government whatever they did, covid is a political gift to the left.

@TheRubyRedshoes exactly!

I do think any government would be between a rock and a hard place with this, and yes some will blame Boris.

And I am a Boris-despising leftie!

The thing that has surprised me the most this year (and depressed me) has been the way people slavishly follow 'the rules' but won't assess risk for themselves. I'm no fan of Boris Johnson (understatement) but no government can legislate for every scenario. 9 months in we all know what causes the spread and who is most vulnerable. People have to weigh up their own individual situation and take personal responsibility for their decisions. If they choose to see relatives and infect them it is not the government's fault - they made that choice.

I'm no fan of Boris Johnson (understatement) but no government can legislate for every scenario.

I don't understand why this isn't obvious. It's like all the uproar when people weren't allowed to go to another area for say an isolated walk. How can any gov gave individual rules for everyone.

TheRubyRedshoes
It's not rubbish.

Throughout this whole pandemic he could have had proper contracting for PPE but he chose not to, he could have condemned Dominic Cummings but he chose not to, he could have locked down properly sooner but he chose not to, he could have limited internal arrivals to the uk but he chose not tk, he could have had a proper strategy for schools but he didn't, he could have had consistency with putting areas into tiers and local lockdown but he didn't.

Early on the government started blaming care home workers for cases in care homes. They painted schools and teachers as the bad guys who wanted to ruin education. They've been shady with their data capture and figures that they release.

He told everyone they can travel around the country and mix for 5 days, then started talking about January lockdowns, now he's saying oh but maybe don't see your family.

Either he is incompetent, or he is negligent. Either way people have died and neither are qualities you want in a Prime Minister.

I agree, people who don't think it's safe for households to be mixing are still doing it, but will blame the PM for any consequences the mixing may have.

Totally agree and I’m no fan of the Tories.

They would have been completely slammed if they didn’t relax the rules over Christmas and, let’s face it, people would have broken the rules anyway. They will get slammed in the new year for relaxing the rules because Boris has some sort of misplaced trust in the ‘common sense of the British public’.

The PM IS relaxing the rules, against scientific advice. Maybe he should take responsibility?
Telling people to absolutely NOT mix households over Xmas, no 5 day exception, would be unpopular, sensible but also take the kind of moral courage our PM lacks. It would also save lives
So yes, if the infection rate shoots up after Xmas, it will because of the relaxing of the rules and it will be the govn responsibility.

But it is all the government's fault!!!😬

They are the ones who have handled the whole situation almost the worst in the world out of all governments.
They have given mixed messages and confused everyone for the whole year.
They haven't given any clear instructions and directions to the country.
They're the ones who had one rule for some, one for another (Dominic Cummings for example).
They're the ones who relaxed restrictions too quickly in the summer and encouraged everyone to start mixing for the sake of the economy. In the paraphrased words of a behavioural scientist who was on C4 news, people thought it was safe because it's what the government said.
They're the ones who didn't listen to scientific advice to go into a national lockdown sooner, thus
creating cases and deaths in a 2nd wave.

Again and again and again, they've made the wrong decisions. And don't get me started on Brexit, because that's ALL the British government's fault and NONE of the EU's fault

Anyone who thinks otherwise is massively unreasonable.

Firmly agree that Boris is saying “you can do it” (to avoid the creation of a situation of mass rule breaking that the state can’t keep a grip on) but don’t do it (so it will be the public’s fault when case numbers rise).

I also think framing this about personal choices and the risks to ones own relatives is most relevant to most of us on an individual level, but on a population level, more contacts, more travel, will impact on the case rate after Christmas and will affect those who didn’t mix at Christmas just as much as those who did.

I think he should have taken the bull by the horns and gone with science rather than popularity ratings. Once again, like with free school meals, they’ve failed to read the public mood and have ended up with opinion polls where the majority of the public think rules should be tighter.

I wont blame anyone for someone I know for catching a virus, given this is what viruses do. Its nobodies "fault".

Because if you blame the person giving the elderly the virus, you should blame the person who caught the virus equally for also being around that person.

Therefore, I blame no one because I'm a decent human being.

I think people have to take responsibility for themselves and also assess what risk you individually pose to your loved ones fully before agreeing to see them.

For instance someone that works in a customer facing role who takes public transport is much more exposed and a greater risk than someone who works from home and gets supermarket deliveries and doesn't go to indoor settings.

We will be seeing my parents as we both wfh we have kept my son off nursery this week and we get all items delivered to the house food included are very risk adverse and haven't been in a shop since March.

My mum has decided that she won't see my brother and his family inside and instead will meet them outdoors for a walk in comparison as they both work in schools have several school age children from primary 3 through to secondary.

The risk level between my brother and I are very different. People have to consider what risk they are and what that poses to others.

CremeEggThief
Nothing is ever this government's fault.
They specialise in populist soundbites and being incompetent.

They could have easily said they are allowing 2 households to meet and they strongly recommend limiting those households to people in a similar geographical area where possible, but if families need to travel then follow appropriate precautions.

It didn't have to be all or nothing.

I won't be seeing many of my family and have a child who hasn't met most of their family yet. It pisses me off that we could be still locked down into spring because Boris was more concerned about his image, opinions polls and having someone else to blame.