Coronavirus, gardens, 'sunbathing' etc.

[ShootsFruitAndLeaves]

You can legally sunbathe in your private garden all day long. But some people don't have gardens.

There are people complaining on social media to the police about people sunbathing on municipal land. Not large numbers of people, literally two people enjoying the sunshine and minding their own business. There are people replying that they will go out and assault them, etc.

There is in fact no law against sunbathing. It just seems to be bringing out the neighbourhood arseholes to try to enforce non-existent rules. Nobody is going to die because someone went out to the shop and decided to stop to sunbathe on a 16 acre meadow on the way home. Nobody. The 'but 1000 people died today' stuff is not related to that. Keep to your own household, don't mix with other people, don't leave home without a reasonable excuse.

You pick and choose what ever suits your lock down.

Well actually, most of us don’t, but it’s clear there are more than a few who do

Don’t get the OP started on cycling

She also thinks they can go out for unlimited hours as long as it’s just 1 trip.

Most of you do. Go sit in your garden and blame the feckless poor.

frankie you’ve clearly got a massive grudge here but I’ll ask for the goodness knows how many times, what can anyone else do to make it better for you?

Some of the most expensive properties in a London are flats with no outside space.

It’s not about wealth

It’s about space in your community and staying away from others

Wanting to do something and not being able to do it in order to save lives are totally different things

The trouble is, we’ve become to used to ‘I want so I’ll have / do’

Yes this

I want a tin of tomatoes to make my favourite recipe and so will go in every single shop in a 3 mile radius till I get what I want.

I want to cut the grass on my lawn and so I will go to B&Q and buy a new lawn mower because i need to have a nice garden. It's my garden I can do what I want

I want to have a barbecue for my birthday and invite my family and neighbours so I will. What harm is it doing

I want to decorate my living room and so let's all pile in the car and its off to Wilko in the next town, or we will crack up staring at the same old wallpaper

And on and on it goes

I think if you want to sunbathe you should do random yoga exercises every few minutes or so. I think that would cover it . . .

OP is correct by the way, there is nothing in the law that says you may only go out once a day for exercise, nor is there anything remotely like a time limit on said exercise. The armchair lawyers here really need to read the act itself, and not believe the rhetoric put out by random people including some politicians. And never rely on the police for knowledge of the law, if nothing else the coronavirus situation has certainly shown us that. However from a moral perspective we should probably be following the spirit of the law.

I fully support anyone with no outside space who want to go and sit in the sun and red a book/ a magazine/ stare into space. Mental health is important and if you are not risking others then I see no problem with it.

This is gonna go on for possibly 6 more weeks, if not more. We have to use some risk assessment and common sense.

However from a moral perspective we should probably be following the spirit of the law.

So the point of the rest of that post was what exactly?

"Sunbathing isn't good for you anyway. And please don't give us the "we all need vitamin D" lark,"

Different opinion here in Germany
Sunlight is thought an excellent way to increase vit D and hence boost the immune system
When there is enough sun, it's better than taking pills

All this fear of the sun is what has helped make so many Brits deficient in VitD
20-30 minutes is fine

Police drove by the Rhine path today

As always, ignored the rows of people sitting on benches, some elderly, some stripped off
Ignored the couples sitting on the grass together in shorts and T, all several feet from the next couple / family

They only stopped a line of cyclists who were speeding too close to walkers
They've put up notices, but some cyclists ignore them

@Bearbehind drawing to attention that there is a very clear difference between the law and morality. If you can't see that perhaps the police force might be a good career path? The spirit of the law is a purposive interpretation rather than the literal interpretation preferred by practitioners incl judges.

I really do wish we could have a separate island for those who say the law doesn’t state we have to comply

Then you could crack on and see how that works out

Of course it's about bloody weath, Bear.

How can you not see that?

It's pretty moronic to think "the law is the law". The law has always had caveats.

@Bearbehind have you read it? If Parliament had intended that people be prevented from going out exercising more once a day for example, don't you think they would have legislated for that?

So I, and my family, actually went for a walk today in a really empty/big park. I knew it would be empty before I went there because it always is.

There were a couple of people sitting on the grass in this really big empty space.

We walked fast to keep fit. Our skin absorbed Vitamin D from the sun (which apparently is vital to keep our lungs healthy).

Would we have been helping the NHS more if we'd have stayed inside in the dark in our flat (we have no garden)?

The poster who said “there is no way you can catch it sunbathing at a social distance”. Just wanted to point out social distancing reduces your chance of catching it, it doesn’t eliminate it. A magical barrier doesn’t surround you at two metres! Many scientists have shown it can carry further. I do understand your point about those without gardens and don’t have an answer but please don’t think a bit of change gives you no chance of catching it. Remember it lives on surfaces for 24-72+ hours too depending on the surface.

Distance not change. Silly predictive text

FFS
You know what’s worse than not having a garden? Watching your children and husband struggle with this virus. Daily exercise goes out the window then.
Disclaimer: I have a (tiny) garden. Aren’t I lucky? [sarcasm]

With all the people outraged that people might be sunbathing a few hundred yards from home, the German court has sensibly ruled that it is disproportionate to ban local residents from beaches near to their home. Only those from other regions are not allowed.

Proportionality is absolutely key. 100 people in a small playground? Close it down. A dozen locals on the beach? Leave them alone.

People have lost all common sense on quest to be the one doing lockdown better than everyone else. It's pathetic.

People have lost all common sense on quest to be the one doing lockdown better than everyone else. It's pathetic.

I fail to see how it’s ‘pathetic’ to be saying that, when you’ve been told to stay at home, sunbathing is not one of the things you can be in public areas doing

Of course it's about bloody weath

frankie you’ve neither answered my point about the very expensive properties in built up areas that don’t have outdoor space, nor offered an alternative solution to the current rules

100 people in a small playground? Close it down. A dozen locals on the beach? Leave them alone.

And who on earth do you think is going to be monitoring that?

What happens when there’s hundreds of people on the local beach?

I can’t get my head around the fact that people think they can each have their own set of rules, tailored to their situation and location in a country of nearly 70 million people

I guess it’s just the special snowflake syndrome at its very worst

The point is if everyone went out and sunbathed like a normal summer there would definitely be incidents of