To wonder what it is about “no overnight stays till 17 May” that is so hard to understand?

[HaveringWavering]

So many colleagues and acquaintances merrily talking today about plans to go and stay with relatives for the bank holiday. Nobody has any shame. We’re waiting till the 17th. Does nobody care any more?

I believe it’s worth holding on a bit longer so we stand a better chance of not having to reintroduced restrictions later.

Fab idea lockdown to avoid a lockdown that might never happen either way. Have people lost their minds?

#IDGAFF

I understand where you're coming from OP. I followed the rules to the letter for most of the last year. I have been cautious and careful.
When I was told I was suddenly CEV instead of just CV I didn't make a fuss, despite being in work in a busy schools between September and December where cases rocketed and, at one point, more than 500 students were isolating.
In January I was told to shield until. March 31st which I duly did, though it made my job so much more difficult and I was working long into the night.

I went back to school for one day on April 1st. A student in my form tested positive and I had to isolate for 10 days. So the plans I had made with my parents to have an Easter Sunday dinner in their garden, and with my sister who I haven't seen since before Christmas, vanished.

My leave from work coincided almost completely with having to isolate.

So I'm allowed out now. I've been back at work for two weeks. In that time I've been in shared classrooms, in proximity with dozens of students who forget their masks, been handed things, been squashed into corridors with other people and been teaching with a face mask on to rooms full of kids with face masks on, many of whom use them to misbehave.

I have nowhere I want to stay overnight really, but given the above, if I did, I honestly can't understand in the slightest why that would be a greater risk than all of my daily routines.

So, I probably would if there was an opportunity.

I know lots of people who take risks maybe don't calculate them, but lots do. And as PP have said, the date is arbitrary and nonsensical. People are being forced to do the banal and the tricky and give up the fun.

I can't get upset about people planning the fun

I am well aware that not all countries had a soft lockdown. That's what makes the local reactions and drama so embarrassing.

A lockdown where schools are shut is not soft. Your reaction is the embarrassing one.

You need to grow up and open your eyes see the harm around you.

@EvilPea

You can do some overnight stays now e.g camping

We had 5 marvelous days in the Lake District last week. There were 20 of us altogether. We weren’t all together at the same time but a good portion of us were both inside and out and a wonderful time was had by all I cannot see any point at all martyring yourselves for the sake of a couple of weeks.

We need to live again

We've done overnights all the way through this current lockdown.

I am satisfied there was no risk within my own family group.

I am looking forward to going out for a meal and a drink in a restaurant after the 17th. Woop Woop/

OP rather than moan on here, I really think you should tell your colleagues how disappointed you are in them and that they have no shame. Let us know how it goes

@HaveringWavering

I think you need to bone up on how criminal law works *@FatAnneTheDealer*. The judge directs the jury as to the law. They can’t just decide which laws to apply or ignore. They are there to weigh up the evidence.

Well technically I wasn't breaking the law as (a) my mum lives alone and doesn't have a support bubble, so we're it and (b) anyone could go to an elderly parent (or not elderly if vulnerable in some other way such as disability or mental health problem) at any time for care reasons.

Lots of people think they know the law, and think it's restrictive than it is.

And I suspect that even in Wales and Scotland with their stricter rules you have been able to visit a vulnerable person if they needed care.

more restrictive than it is

@Teateaandmoretea

I am well aware that not all countries had a soft lockdown. That's what makes the local reactions and drama so embarrassing.

A lockdown where schools are shut is not soft. Your reaction is the embarrassing one.

You need to grow up and open your eyes see the harm around you.

my point exactly...

You should be grateful that we did NOT have to put up with a strict lockdown, I don't know how people coped.

Around here, give us a break, we had the same experience. I never understand this insistence of people trying to become the hero of some dystopian horror story!

@Theythinkitsalloveritisnow

OP rather than moan on here, I really think you should tell your colleagues how disappointed you are in them and that they have no shame. Let us know how it goes

😂😂

I am well aware that not all countries had a soft lockdown. That's what makes the local reactions and drama so embarrassing

Oh are we back to the UK's lockdown wasn't a lockdown nonsense because we were allowed out for exercise and in England there was no legal restriction on how far you could travel?

Sigh.

Ah the “not a proper lockdown” crew are out. Away and shite, seriously. My husband hasn’t been at work for 4 months, my kids were out of school the same time, and we have only been allowed to leave our council area within the last 2 weeks since about November.

The way I look at is that everyone who is pushing the boundaries with you is also pushing the boundaries with other people . Their boundaries probably vary to yours ... you are indirectly connecting with all these people who’s values and boundaries aren’t quite the same as yours . If you’re outside at least you aren’t so vulnerable.

What I'm getting from this thread is everyone has been breaking the roolsz already and yet the numbers are still going in the right direction. So maybe, just maybe, going to hug your own Mother isnt sounding the death knell.

Who'd have thought it?

Oh, and they reckon one vaccine dose cuts transmission by 50%. Given the flu vaccine is only about 40% that's bloody good odds. So I see no good reason to stop vaccinated people from meeting up.

I've had an extra person in my support bubble for months. We are all three of us absolutely fine. I had family members in my house an extra 24 hours over Christmas. We are all absolutely fine. I had a tearful neighbour in for a cuppa one day. We are all absolutely fine. At my wife's funeral in July I hugged a streetfull of neighbours. I hugged friends and family. I had a lot of people in the house afterwards. Nobody got sick (luckily- I had in all honesty forgotten there was a pandemic). I never hugged my wife when she was ill and in fact dying because I was shielding her, and because I didn't know how little time she had left and I didn't know she would go into hospital for two weeks and I wouldn't be at her bedside. She came home for the last two days of her life. We were luckier than many.
So I'd be a bit wary of living to the rules to the nth degree.

Hmm well I don't know there are plenty of shameful laws throughout history that we don't view as shameful to break. Like reading banned books in east Germany. I'm not going to stay anywhere, but I'll cast as little judgement on those who do as I ever have.

@HaveringWavering

I think you need to bone up on how criminal law works *@FatAnneTheDealer*. The judge directs the jury as to the law. They can’t just decide which laws to apply or ignore. They are there to weigh up the evidence.

I’m old enough to remember when juries simply refused to convict under the Official Secrets Act no matter how the judge directed them and eventually the law had to change. When a law is bad enough, juries just decline. (Not that it would happen anyway in this case.)

The overwhelming majority of people here think you are unreasonable.

I don’t give a fuck - 7/10 adults have antibodies- we’re at herd immunity

@HaveringWavering

They’d all be the first to complain if their employers asked them to come back to the office a millisecond before the government relaxes “work from home if possible”.

Good point.

Some human needs, for hugs, face to face contact, affection, transcend the rules.

@RedcurrantPuff

Ah the “not a proper lockdown” crew are out. Away and shite, seriously. My husband hasn’t been at work for 4 months, my kids were out of school the same time, and we have only been allowed to leave our council area within the last 2 weeks since about November.

Again, that's my point.

How on earth would you have managed if we had a strict lockdown?

I was damn grateful we didn't personally, why do people like you are trying to pretend they missed out somehow? No one is getting a badge for being a "lockdown survivor".

@joystir59

I've had an extra person in my support bubble for months. We are all three of us absolutely fine. I had family members in my house an extra 24 hours over Christmas. We are all absolutely fine. I had a tearful neighbour in for a cuppa one day. We are all absolutely fine. At my wife's funeral in July I hugged a streetfull of neighbours. I hugged friends and family. I had a lot of people in the house afterwards. Nobody got sick (luckily- I had in all honesty forgotten there was a pandemic). I never hugged my wife when she was ill and in fact dying because I was shielding her, and because I didn't know how little time she had left and I didn't know she would go into hospital for two weeks and I wouldn't be at her bedside. She came home for the last two days of her life. We were luckier than many. So I'd be a bit wary of living to the rules to the nth degree.

Im so sorry for your loss .

@poppycat10

Well technically I wasn't breaking the law as (a) my mum lives alone and doesn't have a support bubble, so we're it and (b) anyone could go to an elderly parent (or not elderly if vulnerable in some other way such as disability or mental health problem) at any time for care reasons.

Lots of people think they know the law, and think it's restrictive than it is.

And I suspect that even in Wales and Scotland with their stricter rules you have been able to visit a vulnerable person if they needed care.

How is this relevant? I have literally said that my beef is with people who ARE breaking the law. And my comment that you quoted was to a poster who seemed to think that juries can decide not to apply laws that they don’t agree with.

I don't understand people who follow arbitrary rules for no reason. You are a grown up. You don't need the government to tell you when you can stay out overnight! It's not like we're in an emergency situation presently.