To say please don't go to your second home

[Beesisabuzzin]

With talk of London going into lockdown tomorrow can I remind second home owners that Cornwall has one hospital. Devon has four hospitals. Where I live in Devon there is no food in any of the supermarkets. Please, please stay away, our communities cannot deal with an influx.

If things are so bad - no bank, no shop, etc etc why haven't all you rural dwellers moved to London? You seem to think everything is available for all there. Can't afford it? Why's that? Oh wait...because so many of you have moved there and pushed up housing prices... but that's ok, that's fine. If London's shops, hospitals, services are overrun, that's ok apparently. Or is it that you don't want to leave your home village/town? Everyone always jumps in to tell Londoners who can't afford to stay in their home city they should deal with it and move somewhere cheaper. Hypocrites.

There's a nasty insularity and (misplacd) resentment of Londoners in this thread. Imagine if Londoners were writing the same about immigrants moving to London! Imagine the outrage if a local shop refused (like the farm shop example above) to serve a migrant in London. Quite rightly that would be condemned. People fleeing London right now are fleeing a life threatening situation. Not so dissimilar to refugees.

London's supermarkets also can't cope. It's not unique to rural ones. People are panic buying. There's more ICU beds - but nearly 9 million people in London.

Plenty of rural dwellers were more than happy to fly home from ski holidays, cruises, and other holidays via London's airports.

There are many vulnerable Londoners - elderly, disabled, chronic illness. It would actually have been a good idea if empty holiday homes and caravans were offered to these people as somewhere to self isolate.

Tryingtoprep it is true people are fleeing, the trouble is we need them do the opposite as we take the virus with us not leave it behind. Fleeing is the wrong way to look at it. Carrying is better.

I agree @MarshaBradyo I don't think people should be bringing it to other areas. I was unhappy with the hypocrisy and underlying nasty ignorant resentment of Londoners I've seen on some of the posts here (and often see). Some rural dwellers could well have brought the virus to London when they returned from ski trips or the like via London's airports, or when commuting in.

I don't think anyone should be travelling right now unless essential workers or emergency including fleeing DV. I do think vulnerable Londoners - those who were already self isolating due to being at higher risk - and therefore not already infected, should be bussed out to holiday cottages or caravans. That should protect them by taking them out of the worse hit area and wouldn't put locals at risk. Also women and children fleeing DV should if possible be helped to leave and the holiday homes would be a good place perhaps for them to go to. Obviously anyone leaving London should quarantine for a period (supply packages should be delivered). This would help protect vulnerable Londoners and not put locals at risk.

Loverofoldfilms Sat 21-Mar-20 12:22:17
Big boss packed their family (one of their kids had fever so they were in self isolation) and drove from central London to their holiday home in Devon last week. Yep. That's what people are like.
..
They may continue to self isolate in Devon.

That's good to know, SaveChanges, most of us have forgotten that.

The most cases of Covid-19 in London are, according to the news, Southwark which is a big, busy area.

Many parts of London have little or no cases. There has not been one known case in my vicinity (so far), in my borough there is one, in hospital, but several miles away from me. In the neighbouring borough there have been four.

People forget that London is huge, what happens in Finchley bears no relation to what happens in Blackheath.

Those with symptoms who leave their homes to go elsewhere are extremely selfish. They should've left way sooner if they'd wanted to. Very poor behaviour. They of course don't represent the 9 million people in London. Selfish people are everywhere. Bear in mind also that many of the "Londoners" doing that are actually people from all over the UK (including many rural places) who moved to London.

We need a UK wide lockdown asap really. With exceptions for essential workers and emergencies.

@tryingtoprep
If things are so bad - no bank, no shop, etc etc why haven't all you rural dwellers moved to London?

I actually moved out of London decades ago.

If “an immigrant” had barged into the farm shop asking to buy ALL THE MEAT for cash, they’d have had pretty short shrift too. It’s a dubious analogy.

My London friend who’s lent her country flat to a local woman has the right spirit.

I’ve had a lot of conversations about this issue recently. Some London friends are being considerate, others are texting to ask how much food is in the supermarkets here and if it’s worth coming here instead. I mean, really???

I wouldn’t dream of traveling to London with my family at the moment for the social and health reasons outlined here. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask the same courtesy in return.

People fleeing London right now are fleeing a life threatening situation. Not so dissimilar to refugees

Oh FGS. Refugees do not generally bring what they are fleeing with them.

This is about travelling. Travelling during an epidemic. Carrying the virus.

If you live in a high risk area, follow the advice, stay in, don’t stockpile beyond your isolation needs, act responsibly, keep yourself safe.

Don’t risk taking the virus into other communities!

It’s that simple.

Wherever they lived, people returning from N Italy should have been quarantined.

We knew it was happening.

Actually they can do. TB, for example. It's not their fault. They've obviously fleeing terrible situations. Just pointing out that they can and do carry contagious diseases sometimes. There used to be mandatory health checks but human rights campaigners complained about it. I don't know why. If I possibly had TB or anything like that I'd want to be checked and given treatment for it - even if it meant temporary isolation.

If they were asking to buy all the meat, that's rude, although again that man doesn't represent anyone from London but himself.

Full martial lockdown? The Tories depleted the armed forces and the police. They don't have enough personnel.

My friend works in a hotel. They are still open but they are not providing food other than breakfast as room service and they have closed the bar. All the communal areas are shut. Today they have had 2 people ring up asking to book rooms for 2 weeks "to get out of the city while they have a chance" our healthcare is already stretched. Nothing is open. I don't know what they think they are going to do tbh.

If you are outside London, are you allowing your family husband/wife/family to come home if they work in London or even a different area?

Or are you asking them to self isolate away from home?

Are your children coming home from university/work in London or elsewhere?

Or are you asking them stay put and isolate?

Because when they mix with all the family/community isn't this what happened in Italy.

Maybe people moving to a different home, self isolating as soon as they arrive (with supplies) is probably the least of your problems right now.

Or are you just choosing who is allowed to move to suit your own agenda?

Non-essential travel means travelling for any purpose except food shopping or medical prescription collection. I live in Cornwall and do not have a problem with people visiting their second homes, as long as they stay put in them. But if you are wealthy and fortunate enough to own a rural bolt hole, please don't be surprised if you occasionally encounter a whiff of resentment from the locals whose children have had to move away to escape minimum wage work and inflated property prices. The village I grew up in was about 70% second homes 15 years ago, and those left there were mostly over 70. For most of the year, the place was as deserted as the middle of the Gobi.

It would take over an hour to drive to the hospital, so double that for an ambulance to rush you to hospital -- assuming the roads weren''t clogged with traffic.

Agree with Savechanges35 Lots of people who've left London over the past weeks are people returning to their families.

Fwiw I don't particularly like second home ownership. I agree it contributes to unaffordable housing for locals, breaks up communities by forcing their children to move away. Just bear in mind there's plenty of second homes in London too. Overseas billionaires leaving their investment homes empty year round, and people who live elsewhere in the UK buying a London "bolt hole". There's a huge amount of homelessness in London.

The consequences of underinvestment and poor management of the NHS are felt everywhere. There was a thread the other day on here. Someone with Covid waited five hours for an ambulance in central London. Everywhere needs better provision.

Our town was on the lunchtime news. The population has double in the last fortnight with all the usually empty holiday properties full. That means that the streets are crowded and as a result cafes and shops are closing ( after only doing takeaways this week) because they feel that the risks of crowds is too high. Our health service Locally is predicated on the number of visitors swelling only Easter and summer. GP, ambulance , care staff all assume 3500 residents not 7000 in March. Shops are empty of food and essentials. I understand the desire to escape but we have all been asked to stay out. That didn't mean move and then stay put. I'm a former Londoner who moved out in 80s. London has its own pressures as do other major cities, I'm not bashing Londoners just idiots

No non essential travel. That applies to all of us. Amazing how much people want to still do what they like and will try and justify their behaviour. Also amazing how much people don’t want to see the inequality between different areas of the Uk.
This virus will hit underfunded and less affluent areas badly, as it will areas where the population is older. That is fact. I love London, I lived there for some time. This isn’t just about London, it is about an imbalance of resources. It is about fairness and behaving decently, and protecting our oldest people.
Tourism has not been good for the area I live in anyway, it brings in second homers and airbnbs which destroy communities. It brings in affluent South East retirees who affect the housing market so that younger local people can’t afford a house. It brings in people who have no respect whatsoever for our language and culture, people who are entitled, privileged people who move to poorer rural Wales because “It is like Cornwall, but cheaper” and then complain that their children are at a disadvantage because the schools are Welsh.
This entitled and immoral behaviour is a problem generally, and now this entitled behaviour will kill people.
Even if we had a situation where all areas of the UK were equally resourced and affluent, travelling would still be a very bad thing to do now, because we all need to slow viral spread, and the only way to do that is by NOT TRAVELLING.
And to the pp who complained that I spoke of “my community “ while she cares about everybody... well my community, being largely over 70, and nowhere near a hospital, are the ones most likely to die. If they were less likely, and the city hundreds of miles away more likely, I would be doing everything possible not to kill those people. Travel puts everyone at more risk, overloads the NHS and will kill people wherever they live.

It’s don’t think so. It’s more people saw what happened in Italy and don’t want the same to happen here.

@tryingtoprep

Totally hear you on TB. Endangering lives while claiming ‘kindness.’

get in a lift in a london hospital and you won't hear an english accent,
I unfortunately have been spending a lot of time in London hospitals recently. I can assure you there are English and London accents aplenty.

What about people who have booked holiday cottages? It’s either lose hundreds of pounds or go. We have a cottage booked in the remote Highlands where there are Very few cases. All the cafes and hotels are shut. If we go and stay in the cottage or go out for walks surely that’s fine? It may be non essential travel but we aren’t going to lose out on a lot of money and lose out on the opportunity to have a break.

If we go and stay in the cottage or go out for walks surely that’s fine? It may be non essential travel but we aren’t going to lose out on a lot of money and lose out on the opportunity to have a break.
No, not fine. You could easily be carrying the virus and spreading it around to the Highlands and wherever you stop en route. The number of cases reported is not the real figure.

So what’s the difference between walking where I live and walking somewhere else exactly?

Rose will you go into a shop or elsewhere at any time?