Laughing stock of the world...

[Smithtylater]

I was just talking to my Uncle who lives in Canada and he said that the behaviour of the Brits has made news on the TV! He moved to Canada in the 80s and lived through rationing and told me he cant believe we cannot do as we are being told! He said all you are being asked to do is sit down on your arse for a few weeks. He said all other countries appear to be mostly complying but the UK are all going to the beach like its a Bank holiday weekend!

We need to sort this out!

Your uncle isn't entirely correct - we're not all going to the beach and Snowdonia.

It's only those who are too stupid/selfish/arrogant/all three who are going, but unfortunately it seems they make up a significant minority.

'Being British' clearly doesn't mean, as a lot of people like to think, playing fair and looking out for your neighbour. Well not to a lot of people anyway.

Actually, it isn’t just the Brits. See the photos from Australia.

People will be doing as they are told pretty soon, I would imagine.

I'm sure your uncle is a lovely man but I am unclear why his opinion is meant to persuade 66 million people who live 3500+ miles away?

Peeps should definitely stay at home, though. Bloody idiots.

Disclaimer: my opinion is no more persuasive than his.

I think it was the same in many countries, France for example. Actually I think most countries are worrying about themselves and have zero interest in what’s happening in the UK.

Another Briton Canada and I can confirm what your uncle thinks.

'People will be doing as they are told pretty soon, I would imagine'

^

That's where the problem lies. They need to do as they're told NOW

It’s really not just us, they had to close beaches in Spain before anyone complied there and like pp said similar situation in Australia. The advice people are getting here is woolly and vague, they were not told to stay in, they were told to ‘socially distance’ and that you could go out for walks etc unfortunately too many people had the same idea. The tube is busy this morning as the government guidelines of ‘work from home if you are able’ is again vague so many people in non essential jobs are travelling to work because they can’t work from home and their companies have requested that they work.

People are idiots. After all 17.4 million voted for Brexit. Sorry to mention B word.

You are talking nonsense. The behaviour of people and individuals from a wide variety of countries has made the news. See Italy, France, Spain and Australia.

@Smithtylater. Actually, I think your uncle's opinion is perfectly valid!

I'm in Canada too. And I've been totally flummoxed by the UK and all my family. (SIL visited my mum yesterday - a 2 hour drive away!!)
But... this is why:
We are about 2 weeks ahead in dealing with this. Our schools have been closed for quite a while, it's all been pretty decisive closing shops etc.
So...
Because we've seen earlier the way this is going, you can see all the fuckwittery going on in the UK. Things like keeping the schools open, not testing early etc.

It comes across as us being know-it-alls, but its more that we're ahead of the curve, slightly, in managing this. That's all.

Near to us, there's plenty of toilet paper, milk etc. People seem generally to be respecting guidelines.

To me the UK seems to be this weird mix of AARRGH!! PANIC!! and complacency/I'm alright Jack-ness.

Well Australia closed bondi beach didn’t they? So one would assume the Australians were using it like bank holiday weekend too or why would they of bothered officially closing it?

Italy & Spain haven’t acted great either

Admittedly some people here haven’t acted great but no worse than anywhere else

Your uncle seems to be very poorly informed.

Perhaps he should look a little closer to home, such as to the speech just made by the Canadian PM warning Canadians to practice social distancing.

My dd lives in Canada (yes i know its a big place). She says the government there are taking it very seriously but the people around her definitely are not. She is seriously pissed off.

To be fair my Canadian (in U.K.) friend was sending me various text messages about panic stricken Canadians. There will always be someone somewhere judging but never the entire world.

By the way, with my post- I am just interpreting things from where I live, so I don't know if (say) people in Toronto are behaving well.

Your uncle sounds lovely.

He might want to look on his own doorstep before he shits all over the UK:

www.vicnews.com/news/3-in-10-canadians-admit-they-arent-practicing-social-distancing-amid-covid-19-poll/

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/globalnews.ca/news/6716919/trudeau-canada-update-coronavirus-march-23/amp/

Literally a 5 second google brought this up.

Hmm I'm in a Slack group for work with people from all over the world. USA, Canada, Australia, Vietnam, Italy.

They're all just as frustrated as we are.

Australia = Bondi Beach

US = Stockpilers. People stockpiling guns. Genuine fear of society collapsing.

Italy = do I even need to tell you? They've been in lockdown for ages and people are still flouting the rules.

Canada = not actually heard any complaints yet. Go Canada!!

Vietnam = again, no major complains. I think Asia has a pretty good handle on this but it's a very different culture. They started preparing as soon as China announced and closed schools way back in Feb. Currently only 100ish cases I think.

Grenfell residents were told to stay in their flats.
People distrust governments telling them what to do. They see the prime minister saying that we should all remain two metres apart, while his civil servants are standing right next to him.

By the way, with my post- I am just interpreting things from where I live, so I don't know if (say) people in Toronto are behaving well.

By the same token, obviously you don't have a clue what's happening thousands of miles away in Britain.

And given Trudeau's speech just now, obviously very many Canadians aren't 'behaving well'. This idea that everywhere other than Britain is full of responsible, law-abiding citizens is nonsense.

I mean, there are pictures all over social media of the traffic in Florida as people head there for Spring Break so fairly sure we aren't the only ones!

I see your point @icedpurple. I don't have the full picture of an entire country and I'm trying judging any country by the most terrible of the photos the media can present.

And I also don't agree with the statement that the UK is the laughing stock.

But ..I have been upset with seemingly sensible friends and family who are carrying on as normal. I've genuinely put this down to being about 14 behind message than our government. Canadians aren't saints by any means. I got a bit pissy yesterday with a friend who had a playdate with another family.
Part of the reason for my anger in all of this is my DP is frontline in hospital and my son and I are immunocompromised, so I have the prospect of not having DP live with us for 12 weeks. So having my FIL declare that he went and had a coffee at the garden centre yesterday in the Midlands just made me fume.

Not everyone in the UK. Myself and my neighbours have been staying in and social distancing. You get arseholes all about the world unfortunately.

I think everyone needs to stop saying it's the UK doing this rather than Great Britain. Over here in Northern Ireland people are behaving extremely sensibly, relatively little panic buying despite the fact our shop shelves are empty because a lot of our deliveries are going elsewhere in the UK right now where they don't have to lose profit by paying to put lorries on a ferry. We have had 1 death for about 700 infections, making us one of the lowest death rates in the world. People are social distancing and staying at home generally. So leave us out of it.

Other countries are in the same position, to many people in open spaces! Hence the lockdown scenarios. They will clamp down on this, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Your uncle is an idiot. It’s not just Brits - it’s people all over the world. Look at Australia, look at all the people on the beaches in Florida.

People who emigrate sometimes have to justify the big decision that they have made by reassuring themselves that the country that they left behind could never have provided them with the life that they have now.

My cousin lives in Vancouver. She can't buy formula.