No point in lockdown anymore

[LifeMatters]

All my neighbours seem to think that we are in a paid staycation by the government and social distancing are out the door.
Everyone around where I live has friends and family over, are having picnics together on the grass in front of their flats, the roads are busier than ever.
It's crazy! There's no point in making this country suffer any more so better all let's just go to work and what happens happens.

People are taking advantage of the paid time off and not staying indoors. What is the point of this lockdown if people are not following it anymore?

My next door neighbors had friends and family over all this week...it's crazy.

Lockdown around me started well and as a family we stuck to it.
My daughter (who lived with her father) and her boyfriend were kicked out of her father's house because they both lost their agency jobs.
This lead to me working with them and the police to move them 300 miles into my home. We then isolated for 2 weeks with no symptoms.
My annoyance has been with my neighbours, who despite the lockdown have been meeting out the front of their properties drinking and having a merry old time - apparently lockdown doesn't apply to them.
My family on the other hand have been reported several times to the police and council - we've even heard them out the front discussing who and what they have reported us for that day!
Thankfully we just had the local community police visit the area and they have warned the neighbours that if they continue with their behavior they will be getting fined.
Street is currently quiet but I bet come 8pm tonight they will all be out again until gone midnight or longer, getting drunk and carrying on.
Absolute jokes the lot of them!

I’m in Scotland and people where I am are sticking to it.

The roads are dead.

Please, (unless you are one of the specific few allowed to travel further for health reasons under the government guidelines), stay local and away from National Parks and the coast until it is safe for you and for us, and you will then be assured of a warm welcome.

I'm neither a Nationa park nor the coast. You can fuck off from here too. Just stay in walking distance.

I'm dreading the coming weekend.

Furlough irritates me as for a lot of people it's just a paid holiday. My DP's work have just taken on a load of furloughed workers who are now being paid twice!
We've been trying to get a surveyor for our empty property (per the guidelines, house moves to empty properties are fine to go ahead) but it's impossible as none are working, they're all grabbing furlough for as long as they can.

So it’s not okay to be furloughed and work, but it’s not okay to be furloughed and not work? What do you suggest?

Nobody has explained what furlough being ‘too generous’ has to do with people breaking lockdown, either.

Furlough is too generous?

How am I supposed to pay my mortgage while I’m not able to work then, exactly?

Agree, furlough was over generous. I don’t think they anticipated people would behave as they have done. Agree not to work, scream they shouldn’t work, it’s too soon, whilst treating it like some massive holiday I run payroll for a care home, I know carers are wonderful, well most of them, but we've had people refusing to work and come payday demanding their furlough pay. They got a bit of a shock when I explained they haven't been furloughed, refusing work isn't the same thing.

I think if they had started stricter social distancing early, avoided stuff like the Cheltenham Festival and all gatherings of more than 10 or 20 people, we could have managed with people still working and families see each other. Pubs, theatres, cinemas and restaurants would have needed support but other things could have carried on in a fairly normal way. Or we could have had strict lockdown.

What we got was lockdown too little too late and 30,000 dead.

I think the issue is that when lockdown was implemented, people were terrified, watching Italy and being told that what was happening there WAS going to come here. So people on the most part complied with what they were told to do. There was also the whole "you must NOT come to hospital even if you are ill" thing. People were told by 111 to stay at home even when they were quite unwell, because the insinuation was that otherwise the NHS would fall apart, which also terrified people. Because of this for the first few week people on the most part complied with what they were told to do. As time has gone on, people have talked to people in their local area and become quizzical, saying "No, I haven't heard of anyone local with the virus either. I mean, such and such have had X, Y and Z symptoms, so MAY have had it, I suppose....." So to a lot of people, it hasn't quite been the Black Death scenario that was put to them initially. And they have relaxed a bit because of this. If everyone with symptoms, not just those in hospital, had been tested from the start, then in my opinion then people may have taken it more seriously. There are plenty of people who've been saying "well, such and such was quite ill actually, with chest issues and temp, but it's probably just a normal virus".

I'm in Liverpool and we're one of the worst affected areas. I work in a school and know a number of pupils who have lost family members to confirmed covid cases. Family work in the NHS and have been having daily interactions with severely ill covid patients. Other people I know have personally seen ambulances arriving in their road to take neighbours with suspected covid to hosptial.

If you haven't experienced any of this, then I have no doubt that that is causing people to relax a bit. This is coinciding with government saying we have passed the peak and talking about exit strategies happening soon. It is inevitable that people are now going to relax their vigilance.

Even though people have been really good round here, and I think it's becuase there HAVE been lots of cases in my region, just yesterday I saw a local chippy open, with quite a few people waiting inside, 2 members of staff standing side by side behind the counter, and a woman running from her car straihgt inside without reading the notice on the window about only allowing 3 customers in. There were already more than 3 customers waiting, and no sign of anyone telling her to wait outside.

I had to do a morning on Reception in work, as part of a number of staff on a rota. There was no spray, wipes, gloves, nothing in place and it was a PC and phone etc that different people are using each day.

We are not really ready for lockdown to relax, but people think we are, and this is the real danger.

@TooTrueToBeGood and how would they have policed that exactly? We barely have enough police to deal with actual crime, let alone have them trying to work out who's been out of the house for invalid reasons.

I'd hardly dare to venture out of my immediate area after hearing all this, be too depressing to see the contrast. Although several buses go past our window that travel through South London, some to Central, and they to all intents and purposes empty. Most have no passengers whatsoever, and the occasional one that does has 2-3 at most. This is four routes, all going by multiple times an hour. Very rarely even a single person at the stop.

We live opposite a green area, no one is having a picnic or playing sports. Our road provides access to a park and there is no flow of people heading to and from there. We overlook many gardens as we are upper floor, I haven't been monitoring them but I think I would have heard any gatherings or parties, and I haven't heard one since lockdown began.

In all the shops either DP or I have been too people are distancing, obviously there is the odd awkward movement but people are aware.

Many people are wearing masks. Only seen two or three groups that looked like they were not likely households out and about exercising.

I am expecting it to change any minute. It's fascinating though because others who must live quite near me are seeing something very different. We must be a patchwork of responses by postcode.

I sometimes feel like it’s only me, Dh and the kids living in a parallel universe, staying in (not doing the competitive staying in thing by the way, I’m pregnant with complications that might mean I don’t have a great chance of living though my section in August, so taking no chances of getting ill before hand).

Everything has always been busy where we are. Neighbours are always out in the street chatting closely, roads are busy as ever past the house.

I've only seen two people breaking lockdown where I live (although it's hard to spot rule-breaking because I'm generally in my house) and they wete both cleary off regular drug users, so unlikely to be on furlough. I live in an area where tourism and leisure are a huge part of the local economy, and we have very high compliance rates with the lockdown rules, apparently, so it's not being on furlough that's encouraging rule-breaking, because so many people here work in places which had to shut down for safety.

If people are breaking lockdown, surely it's far more likely to be because of newspaper stories and threads like this encouraging people not to take lockdown seriously even though there are still thousands of new cases each day.

I’ve not noticed any change where we live. Park is still pretty quiet barring a regular gathering by the miniature railway (they’ve been dispersed several times), shops even in the town centre seem the same each time I’ve been (mind you I haven’t been in big supermarkets). Not sure about cars though, maybe there are more on the road actually

I'm pretty sure that it was reported by the government that 86% of people were complying. That's an overwhelming majority of people IMO.

I've seen obvious breaches of it now and again, but not all day everyday like your describe.

@Connie222 I hope it all goes well in August.

According to the stats 84% of people are still adhering to the lockdown. We are having a social distancing street party tomorrow.

@RedToothBrush I didn’t include the people travelling for 10 miles for a Ice cream as an essential journey I meant the genuine ones who are travelling for valid reasons in my post.

I have spotted our local ice cream man around the village again, I’m assuming they are classed the same as takeaways etc so that’s why they are all suddenly appearing and the police are unable to stop them. Personally hate ice cream so that annoying tune I could do without when my brain is already frazzled

Your immediate neighbours OP are am indescribably tiny proportion of the 66 million people in the UK.

Clearly one or two very local roads don't represent even one particular area. A pp on page 1 says they're in SE London and that's it's busy. My friend, also in SE London, says everyone's taking the lockdown very seriously where she is. She thinks it's because of the hundreds of deaths SE London has seen so far. Her neighbours are obviously aware of the high infection rates around them.

I like to think the majority of the UK has a brain.

There are people in their own front gardens where I am and others going on their daily exercise. It's a nice day today. Some of those exercising or in their gardens presumably stayed indoors when it was colder or rainy. Perhaps that's what you're noticing OP.

I think the media, especially some newspapers, have a lot to answer for, reporting 'lockdown lifted' as fact rather than headline-grabbing speculation - it's incredibly irresponsible. It raises hopes, worries others, confuses those who want to do the right thing, and gives the entitled or stupid covidiots greater encouragement to be, well, entitled or stupid covidiots.

Funnily enough I've noticed more of these threads with the OP apparently noticing people suddenly flouting lockdown than I have people actually doing so!

I'm sure it's pure coincidence. The more cynically minded would wonder if it's attempt to encourage manipulate people into 'If you can't beat 'em join them'.

I have been opposed to the lockdown ever since it was announced, and remain convinced that it was a bad idea. Everyone needs to go back to work and school

In the U.K.
206,715 cases
30,615 deaths
DESPITE LOCKDOWN.

You and your loved ones get out there first @celan.
If you could save the NHS by having a DNR order in place that would be helpful.
Meanwhile I will keep putting my gloves, apron, face mask and visor on to see patients.

I agree with you Ginny
Some sections of the media are behaving irresponsibly.

They have a moral responsibility to report accurately. And to not encourage people into risking lives and the economy. We need to do what we can, as the Prime Minister says, to avoid a bad second wave.

I like to think the majority of the UK has a brain.

Well...

People where I am (city in Scotland) are still keeping to the rules but doing more within the rules - picking up takeaways for example or going to an indie bakery as opposed to the start when most were trying to shop less than once a week or have everything delivered. Therefore there are more people out.
I’m considering driving a mile or so to pick up a takeaway next weekend from a local restaurant- something I’d never have done in April.

I think that there should be a way for people who don't agree with the lockdown can go about what they want:

1. They need to sign up so that if they get sick they won't be helped to save the NHS. It's their choice to risk it.
2. If it's proven that they infected someone who died they take on the financial responsibility of that persons family.

Then it would be fair imo.

No, people still complying from what I see. I go to work daily so it’s what I notice in the morning and evening. No parties or increased activity in the evenings or weekends. Three local parks are shut. People I speak to on the phone (20-30 daily) also complying.