Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner (Facebook)

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Been drawn to pictures on this page today.

Albeit I'm very rural Scotland. I've been watching a few threads and commented on a few about respecting boundaries and rules at present, and indeed people's perceptions of those.

There's a post on here with over two thousand comments of people just sitting in the park, sun bathing and playing games. How can this be?

I know on mumsnet, and I may have missed it, nobody would admit to ever doing anything like this. Or indeed shopping for non essentials, or stockpiling.

But this has staggered me. What is going on? Why is this happening. I'm so sad and scared right now.

I also apologise if this has been covered. It probably has. Or it may be this fake news stuff I keep seeing. But in that video that park looks like a normal day? Am I wrong?

I'm a Londoner. I took my dog and sons to the park yesterday for our daily exercise. It wasn't busy and everyone was far apart. We stayed in our garden today (yes we are so lucky to have one!) as I thought the parks might be busy as it was so warm.

My friend lives on the coast and said the beach was packed 🤷‍♀️

I'm in an East London borough. Local paper reporting police having to break up large parties and lots of complaints about parks being very busy and calling for mp to intervene.

I guess it’s tough having a studio flat, no balcony, no real source of daylight or sunshine etc.
We don’t appreciate what we have, until we don’t have it!

I wondered if they were old pictures or something? It seems surreal that anyone would genuinely do this let alone in big numbers.

What sort of flat are you living in which has no source of daylight?

There were pictures in the media yesterday of a crowded Brighton Beach, gainsaid by contemporary web cam images of a nearyl-deserted beach.

I live in London and am walking every day. I've seen nobody flout the rules. Parks here are very quiet in the week. Busier at weekends - but everyone is trying hard to keep a good distance from each other.

Those photos are fake and I don't know why the media (is it the media or just social media?) are churning this rubbish out.

I’ve just been telling off the kids who always run around the corridor with a football.

I’d much rather they were outside. But it turns out their parents are having a party and they can’t play in the flat.

If there was some way to shut kids up at a reasonable hour....I knew I had to leave London but after this, sod the elderly mother, I’d much rather live in the outer Hebrides, I don’t care if they don’t have facilities to save me, I’d not want intubation anyway.

I live in London and had to go out yesterday for medical reasons. It was mad where I was. No way could you keep 2m apart. People just milling about like a normal Saturday. Non-essential shops open (I did not go in, obviously). Up until yesterday I have stayed in for pretty much 2 weeks other than a quick walk every 3 days or so. So yesterday was a bit of a shock tbh.

It's strange. There seems to be an agenda in the media to stir up hatred against Londoners. It's bizarre because many of the journalists are exactly the type of Londoner the rest of the UK hates. Lots of high profile journalists have second homes for example. They represent a tiny minority of London. I've also seen a couple of recent articles arguing against lockdown. Is there a link?

“ There seems to be an agenda in the media to stir up hatred against Londoners”

I thought I was being paranoid, interesting others have noticed it.

I've noticed some of your posts @AutumnRose1 because you sound like me. London's a shit place to live isn't it.

I’m in London and I don’t see people often breaking rules. It will be tough for people in estates that can house 10k of people in a tiny space

I’m a Londoner and disgusted with how people in my area have been. My local park has been full of idiots having picnics and playing football in big groups. I walk my dog in the park and keep my distance. It’s all been quite disheartening to be honest. I’m scared too and this drives me nuts.

Londoner here, park at the end of my road was empty. Normally in this kind of weather it would be packed

Saw a BBC London news report today where they started filming under Richmond Bridge to show how people are still crowding together, then filmed on top of the very same (deserted) bridge to show how well people are taking the government's advice. All in the same 3 minute segment. What are these reporters trying to achieve?

Darned “ London's a shit place to live isn't it.”

Yes. The weekend before lockdown was beautiful, it was so quiet.

I’d love to stroll along Piccadilly etc now, while there’s no one there. But a pandemic offers no such comforts.

“ All in the same 3 minute segment. What are these reporters trying to achieve?”

They’re reporters. They want trouble. Tighter lockdown and riots would be their dream right now.

Small park in outer London and saw a couple of small groups of teens playing football and cycling together, plus adult sunbathers. I wanted to go to let the kids run around while they wanted to sit and make daisy chains, we didn’t hang around long. It was fairly busy but there’s a lack of other places to go and many live in flats without gardens. As long as there’s no physical contact and space I don’t see the problem. It’s just if everyone does it...

There seems to be an agenda in the media to stir up hatred against Londoners

I don’t think there’s an agenda against Londoners as such, it’s just they are easy pickings. High density population, lack of gardens and private outdoor space, means even if a small % of the population go to their nearest park for a run/dog walk/fresh air it’s going to appear crowded.

The agenda is “idiots flouting the rules”. Problem is if they went anywhere else the same % of the population wouldn’t be so impactful.

Rurally they have closed parks as people have other means to get out for walks, runs and cycles, plus gardens are more common. If they hadn’t it’d be the same sight as London.

Driving home from work (keyworker) on Saturday I saw people picnicking in groups and sunbathing in a square, tons of people milling around Chelsea embankement (it was like a regular Saturday) and people sunbathing and drinking in groups on Blackheath.

My little corner of SE London is relatively quiet in comparison.

I am a Londoner. My local park had some people in it, no-one anywhere near as close as 2m. I live in a busy street and no-one has any problem keeping apart here either.

I think all those reports of 'packed' London parks are from the same foul curtain twitchers who wank over how often their neighbours go out.

There seems to be a campaign to get us fighting amongst ourselves to distract from serious issues like a chronic shortage of PPE and testing.

I think a lot of these pictures are probably old or not of what they’re being claimed to be. Or, if you angle a photo in a certain way you can make it look like people are a lot closer than they are

I live in a touristy area, right by the beach. Lots of people are claiming the place is like a normal summer weekend, lots of holiday makers and people flocking to the beach and car parks are full to bursting

Actually, the car park has is closed and the gates are locked and there’s hardly any traffic outside. There were a few people walking on the beach yesterday but it certainly wasn’t packed and everyone kept well away from each other.

Hotels are closed, holiday parks are closed and the police who are out regularly patrolling are saying that they just aren’t seeing the activities people are claiming

One of the photos of a ‘full to bursting car park ’ was actually of a residents parking area - I recognised it as my friend lives in the estate.

A friend of mine FB shamed a ‘group of teens’ yesterday - it was pointed out to him that they are actually siblings who lives further down the road from him and were out walking their dog, but that comment was ignored in favour of frothing and calling for them to be arrested.

My teen’s mental health is currently completely fucked, she’s suffering from extreme anxiety, panic attacks and is terrified to leave her own bedroom because of this sort of thing. She’s too scared to leave the house to tend to her horses in case someone sees her and judges her

Yes, there are people breaking the rules - my neighbour has had his mates round all weekend, but we all seem to be turning on each other.

Yesterday when the local press announced a rise in local cases, the article was full of comments calling them idiots, stupid, it’s their own fault for flouting the rules, ‘THEY’RE LITERALLY SPREADING DEATH’

Sunbathing, picnics and reading are not exercise and those people should be moved on by police.

Sitting on a bench for a few minutes during exercise is obviously perfectly acceptable.