Quarantine rules.... I want to scream. This government makes nonsensical rules and yet we can do nothing about it

[CautiousOptimist11]

Ok, please read this thread for what it is... disbelief at the draconian measures under which we are all living THAT MAKE NO SENSE. It is infuriating and upsetting that our lives are so easily manipulated with no means of questioning it. What on earth has happened??

Take away the thought that we all have to put up with difficult things, we have all been through a difficult year etc, some people have lost everything. I get ot, its awful and we must all do our part to help. This is not my point. My point is that it would appear, we have gone down a slippery slope where the government can do pretty much whatever they want.

So my family and I are in quarantine at home after coming home to the UK from a non red list country. Not a holiday.

Let's say we support the quarantine EVEN ALTHOUGH there are so many holes in the system, it starts to lose its sense. The hauliers, flight crew etc - people coming in daily with no quarantine. The fact that you stand with other people from other flights for hours at passport control. That you can technically take public transport home to start your quarantine. That you can go to a test centre for your day 2 and 8 tests, on public transport. That you have to pay £200 for day 4 and 8 tests DESPITE STILL BEING IN QUARANTINE ANYWAY! (And testing before entering UK).

I feel like I have been treated like a criminal. The police came to the door to make sure we were in a couple of days ago, and their attitude was awful. Like we were criminals on house arrest.

But here is the main part of my complaint, the thing that highlights how utterly ridiculous the system is, yet nobody can or does question it.

You have the option test test to release on day 5. Extra money and inconvenience. But if negative, you can leave straight away.

If you don't pay for this extra day 5 test then, after your day 8 test (negative here), you must still wait til MIDNIGHT ON DAY 10 before you can leave the house. Why? Why are you safer after day 5 than day 8? Why not just test everyone on day 8?

I am sitting here on day 10, wondering if the police will come shouting at my door again, also wondering what kind of country I have come back to.

It's so sad

Some of the responses on here are so awful. 'it's the rules, end of'. So if the rule was that you can only go out if you're wearing a specific green t shirt made by a company owned by a specific company, whose directors happen to be Tory donors, that would also be OK? Because it makes as much sense as the rule the OP is questioning. She is not complaining about needing to quarantine, or that she didn't know, or even that it's unfair, just that from the holy grail of being 'safe' the 5 day release if you can pay for it makes no sense.

I hear you, OP.
You are clearly capable of critical thinking, which will piss off a lot of mumsnet virtue signallers who just want to shout you down for being selfish and irresponsible. The whole thing is an UTTER shit show, but there is a noisy segment of the UK population who enjoy wallowing in their own miserable martyrdom and are incapable of independent thought. Think martyred sheep bleating incessantly.

Am based overseas in a country that has strict quarantine rules and not on the red list.
Lots of co workers in the last year have had to travel to to UK, China, Australia, and New Zealand. Most people say UK is the most stressful. Mainly cause the rules are so confusing. That the airports are disorganised, then the you are exempt if you are doing XYZ, rules keep changing.
When Australia, NZ you book your quarantine, and your in for 2 weeks no exceptions.
Even our adopted home country, you are met off the plane, tagged escorted home. Day 5 the men in hazmat suits pick you up and take you to be tested, then again at 11am on day 14. After second test you are free 8 hours later. No one minds that as it is clear and everyone is doing 2 week. It is the constant changing and number of loop holes that makes the UK hard.

You are clearly capable of critical thinking

What for whinging about the quarantine rules?!

@CautiousOptimist11

The "don't like it don't travel" people have absolutely zero understanding of what I am saying, and are most likely the kind of people who let the government erode their civil liberties- unjustifiably - without question

It's a real shame that quarantine doesn't keep you away from people on the internet as well as in real life. Your assumption that anyone that disagrees with you is stupid is, well, stupid.

But none of the people 'disagreeing' with the op have actually answered her specific point about the nonsensical bit of the rules, not the concept of quarantine about which she has no problem. I love how that happens. No-one can actually defend the batshit inconsistencies so they jump on a totally different point that the op isn't even contesting.

@Itsalonghaul

You are clearly capable of critical thinking

What for whinging about the quarantine rules?!

Read the OP’s posts. There is a ‘see all’ button allowing you to read all her updates in order. You’ll see that she is not whinging. She is pointing out the inconsistencies and inadequacies of the quarantine system in the UK. We really have to think for ourselves and not jump on bandwagons! I urge you to carve out some time to properly research what’s going on. I appreciate it’s very challenging to find that time with the demands of work and family pressing on us - but we can’t just blindly accept nonsensical rules and then shout down people who question them. Let’s work together to hold the government to account rather than letting ourselves be blindly led.

@HugeAckmansWife

But none of the people 'disagreeing' with the op have actually answered her specific point about the nonsensical bit of the rules, not the concept of quarantine about which she has no problem. I love how that happens. No-one can actually defend the batshit inconsistencies so they jump on a totally different point that the op isn't even contesting.

Google tells me this is called a straw man argument. Basically if you can’t find a counter argument then deliberately misunderstand the argument and counter that instead!

OP I hear you.

And as you get up to speed with the proposed new internal "vaccination passports" and testing regimes and apps for attending events / going to the pub etc etc you will see the far reaching lunacy of the inconsistencies being applied.

I've been a rule follower because - greater good, public health etc, but I'm balking at the implications of having to prove I'm not a plague carrier every time to do anything previously considered normal.

If you want a glimpse into it all in one place, I started a thread on the Coronavirus board ten days ago - "And so it begins - with pubs?" and in that ten days things have gone from "just an idea we're floating about" to "this will be happening as early as April 18th starting with football matches".

Do we have the technological infrastructure for all of this, never mind expecting venue employees to effectively police their punters and micromanage things in areas like pubs and events where situations can become volatile regardless of pandemic.

There's a very big picture going on here and I don't like it.

And I'm not anti-lockdown or anti-vax, but there seems to be no science based measured response to getting out of lockdown, just an increasingly complex bureaucratic mess open to all sorts of disaster.

And like the pay to get a test and get out of quarantine early scenario you highlight, so much is tied to money.

Welcome back OP. You will now be noticing that critical thinking, evidence and reality have long since departed these shores, that rules are arbitrary, science has left the building and turned off all the lights, and that the majority of the population are gullible simpering fools who will beg at the knees of any ruler, no matter how heinous, in return for protection from whatever threat the media command they cower before.

@Whatisthisfuckery

Welcome back OP. You will now be noticing that critical thinking, evidence and reality have long since departed these shores, that rules are arbitrary, science has left the building and turned off all the lights, and that the majority of the population are gullible simpering fools who will beg at the knees of any ruler, no matter how heinous, in return for protection from whatever threat the media command they cower before.

I don’t want to share a country with these gullible simpering fools! But what to do?