Well that was clear as mud, so is meeting family allowed now or what??

[Crimples]

Not that it matters to me personally, being in Scotland but that was just the biggest load of waffley waffle.
Not even a mention of meeting other households.

Millions of people can’t work from home . How will businesses decide if they are allowed to open or not based on such a loose statement ? Or is there more guidance to follow ?

There's more to come tomorrow

Businesses can only open though if they can safely do so. So only places that have space to socially distance so they need to think about routes and staggered start times even.

Shops can't open yet - that was specifically mentioned The prime minister says the "phased reopening" of shops - other than food stores and other "essential" outlets - may begin in England on 1 June, at the earliest

I’m a nanny

I can work in a house with 10 other people but can’t see my own family and friends

My view is that those places of work, that have not specifically been told to close, need to prepare to reopen. Why? Fairly obvious, we/ they can’t afford to subside them much further in this phase.

Exactly. If you want to know if you’ll be expected back to work, look at previous guidance on what businesses have been required to curtail their buisness. Of course, I would imagine those firms won’t simply be able to open as normal tomorrow morning.

‘I don’t understand, it’s not clear’ = ‘You aren’t saying what I want to hear’

I’m sad that English people are being asked to sacrifice themselves in this way. But then, you did vote for both Brexit and the Tories.

I'm just looking this up, and the English timetable is similar to the Irish one:

This is the IRISH (NOT NI) Schedule:
Outdoor work, such as construction - May 18
Retailers like garden centres and hardware stores - May 18.
Outdoor meetings in groups of four people - May 18.
Small retailers with social distancing - June 8
Work with low levels of interaction - June 8
Restaurants where social distancing possible - June 29.
Hotels, minus hotel bars - July 20.
Pubs and nightclubs - Aug 10
Full return to work - Aug 10
Tourist travel to offshore islands - Aug 10
Schools and universities - September

Schools is major difference but to do with could be more to do with Irish holidays being different (They all finish in June whereas we still have a full half term to go) and it looks like our secondary schools are following the Irish.

Also from what I'm reading, the English dates are flexible and the suggestion is that they will be localised - so if your local area is a hot spot and has a higher R rate, you WON'T be returning at the same time as other english areas which have lower R rates.

The idea is that a 'warning system' will be set up to give information on the localised R rate.

If this IS indeed the case, its not a wildly 'out there' plan nor one that necessarily exposes the english in a way that is different to the other nations nor foreign countries.

But the devil certainly is in the detail and this plan is not supposed to take affect until WEDNESDAY. (So tomorrow and Tuesday will be abject chaos). The full plan is to be published and promoted in the next day or so.

@lyralalala - your point about lorry drivers makes me wonder about aircrew too. Surely they can’t be required to self-isolate for 14 days (or whatever it will be) after each flight?

The answer may well be that this hasn’t been thought through in any detail. Or that there’s a list of exemptions (aircrew, Irish, French, anyone else who gets on the blower to Boris) which we are yet to see.

I wonder whether the anonymous government official briefing the media on “meet one person” is the same one who 24h ago was briefing on the imminent reopening of garden centres.

They will have had more info than a 15 min briefing on TV!

Really??

@Missteebeee

You’ll be no different to any key worker, or anyone of the millions of other workers who haven’t been in a closed-down business, over the lockdown. I have sympathy, but less than I have for my brother who’s a doctor or my cousin who’s a delivery driver.

why not email your workplace and ask them?

^Nooooooo .... that would require the teeniest tiniest degree of initiative. Absolutely unreasonable to expect someone to think of that all by themselves*.

*and incidentally exactly what my currently furloughed 19yo dd did all by herself as soon as the statement ended ... if she can figure it out then surely proper grown ups can too.

I'm astonished that anybody found clarity in that.

People are inferring a lot from what he didn't say, but now is the time to be crystal clear and spell things out - which didn't happen.

Up until now the message has been 'essential/key work only', and from tonight the message is, 'if you can't work from home, you should actively be encouraged to go to work.' That is incredibly vague. A great many industries can't work from home, but aren't essential. Should they go to work, or no? Is the furlough scheme to be continued?

Ah I see thanks @lyralalala

And yes, of course people can email their workplace and ask - but will their employers even know?

your point about lorry drivers makes me wonder about aircrew too. Surely they can’t be required to self-isolate for 14 days (or whatever it will be) after each flight?

We seem to be the exception to the rule in not quarantining currently. Many other countries already do, so I wonder what their arrangements are.

The answer may well be that this hasn’t been thought through in any detail. Or that there’s a list of exemptions (aircrew, Irish, French, anyone else who gets on the blower to Boris) which we are yet to see.

Alex Wickham of Buzzfeed News has already stated that there are exceptions to Ireland and France.

jeez where is the media geting this shit from he never said meet someone 2m apart

this isnt going to go well

I thought he said Primary schools Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 from Early June and Secondary children taking important exams next year (Year 10 and Year 12) to be face to face with teachers before break up for summer. That would be 2 weeks in July then. Other secondary children it sounds like September.

Up until now the message has been 'essential/key work only', and from tonight the message is, 'if you can't work from home, you should actively be encouraged to go to work.'
No. That’s no different at all. That has always been the message. Nothing has changed there.

@RedToothBrush where does it say that about england

And yes, of course people can email their workplace and ask - but will their employers even know?
Exactly, my employer will have the usual zoom meeting tomorrow so I expect I'll hear something at some point .
When I was furloughed I said to my LM so unless I hear otherwise I'm off work and she said yes when I hear anything I will tell you , so I'm not in work till told otherwise.
Unless you've had a date to go back no work.
I can't imagine everyone going in tomorrow, companies haven't prepared.

@GabsAlot According to a couple of journalists on Twitter they were told it in a briefing.

DS's Secondary school breaks up on 2nd July. He is Y10, not going to get much face to face time!

You can sit in the sun in your local park, you can drive to other destinations, you can even play sports but only with members of your own household.

You must obey the rules on social distancing and to enforce those rules we will increase the fines for the small minority who break them.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/10/boris-johnsons-address-nation-read-coronavirus-speech-full/

hmm very ominous suppose we'll have to wait till tomorrow

Up until now the message has been 'essential/key work only', and from tonight the message is, 'if you can't work from home, you should actively be encouraged to go to work.' That is incredibly vague. A great many industries can't work from home, but aren't essential. Should they go to work, or no? Is the furlough scheme to be continued?

You’ve misheard the message over the past few weeks if you believe only key workers have been expected to go out to work. Plenty of non-key workers have had to if their industries are still able to operate (ie not leisure or non-essential retail etc). I imagine furlough will still have to continue for those staff who are shielding or have childcare responsibilities, but it will be open to all employees simply because a business chooses not to operate.

No it's not clear because nobody knows. I'm not a Tory fan but it's not his fault. He doesn't know. Nobody knows. He's trying to take a careful slow path out of this situation. It makes sense even if we don't like it. We have to take small steps and see if things remain possible to handle. It's not rocket science.