BBQ party tonight

[Grumpynan]

We have planned a family get together this evening with a charcoal bbq in the garden. I hasten to add it’s a proper one not disposable.

should we still go ahead, or should I play save and cook the food indoors, what’s everyone else doing,

I mean, it stresses disposable bbq, says nothing about kettle ones in a garden. But I don’t want to cause any problems, and tbh we have a lot of trees around us and I’m a little worried, DH says I’m being silly but ?

Well of course they can, but many people also have common sense and can assess a situation for themselves and their own circumstances. It may be the "right thing to do" in places where there actually is a drought and dried up grass etc, but that's actually not the case everywhere. Up in the north we're well used to everyone believing the SW is the centre of the universe, but given that it's rained three times in the last 24 hours in my area, I don't see the situation much differently than any other time I might have lit a barbecue. If everyone just did all the standard fire safety stuff that you're supposed to do even when there aren't any wildfires, I wonder if there would be no problem. But unfortunately governments often have to legislate for the careless.

Starting from the charitable premise that not all the 'pro-BBQ' people on this thread are idiots, and allowing for the fact that a number of them will be bots/deliberately trolling, I think these posts sum up everything that is wrong with humanity.

"I want..." they scream like uncontrolled toddlers. What the selfish and self-centred want trumps everything else in their narrow minds. Who cares how it might impact others - provided that they and theirs are okay, nothing else matters. They are the people who take parking spaces for the disabled because "I'm in a hurry". They are the people who listen to their phones on loudspeaker in the train because... well, just because they can, the little darlings. They are the people who shout at each other across the street, rather than crossing over to have a conversation at a civilised level, because they do not give a flying fig for anyone else's discomfort.

Oh happy days.

Which is exactly what people said during COVID, when folk wanted a hand to hold at their husband's funeral or during the birth of their first child. I wondered whether we had learnt anything from all that; perhaps not.

That wasn't the point I was making in answer to another poster.

The allowing of gas barbecues is not unconditional.

So reminding careless people not to have barbecues when the risk is even higher than usual is a good idea, isn't it? It's not as if barbecues are essential.

Sure, but I also don't think that intelligent, sensible people who decide to (safely) have a barbecue are necessarily dense, selfish, brain-dead, or any of the other things that have been said on this thread.

I think by definition anyone deciding to have a bbq right now, can’t therefore be sensible and intelligent.

they’re mutually exclusive

That's that south-centric thing again!

Where I am, it's rained three times in just over 24 hours. The grass is all fine. It's a bit chilly.

"The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears..."

Bollocks.

I went to one yesterday for 30 people. They used a gas bbq on a patio, pulled further away from the fence than normal, watered the grass next to the patio and had the hosepipe nearby. Not a spark to be seen, and if there had been one of the cooks would’ve noticed as it was never left unmanned as per government guidance.

Common sense.