How can the one household rule be enforced?

[GruffaloandMouse]

In my area of the North we can only mix with our own household. I don’t understand how this can be enforced. Me and a friend could go to a cafe and say we live together as sisters or flat mates or even partners and no one would question it. It would only seem very suspicious if we turned up in a big group.

Does anyone else think this?

and from the other side of it, in the first lockdown, when both my uni student dc were home we were a household of 8 (me, dh and 6 dc - all tweens and teens) we got challenged more than once by nosey judgemental busy bodies when we went out eg for a walk together or later on for a picnic. We were also unable to book a table to eat out at several local pubs/ restaurants near us when they first re-opened as no where would allow bookings of more than 6. ( I was trying to bbok a table for DH 50th bday)

It can’t be “policed” because it’s only advisory.

I live in an area where there are restrictions. I have seen many many people in restaurants and pubs in groups of people who are clearly not one household.
Grandparents picking up the grandkids from school. Big groups of mums and kids in the park. Birthday party’s with banners and balloons etc.
The kids I work with all tell me about meeting with their friends and family on the weekend and one child even attended a wedding in a banqueting hall in the town centre! People have parties and make no attempt to close curtains or keep the noise down.
When you see all this it’s very demoralising. We though we’d have extra measures for just a couple of weeks. We have never really come out of lockdown. The kids keep asking when they can have friends over? What do I say? After Christmas... maybe. Not sure I’m going to stick to this much longer.

@ragged

Are bubbles defunct in the lockdown areas ? So a single person truly can never mix with anyone (unless receiving care, I guess).

You can still have support bubbles. So a single person can mix with the household they've chosen as their support bubble but that's it. Other households can't mix and it is being policed in some areas.

Grandparents picking up the grandkids from school.

I don't judge anyone who is doing this. Some people are having to rely on grandparents to care for their children so they can work.

@Chestergirl39

I’m not sure how it will be policed and suspect it won’t be. Hopefully the majority will follow the guidelines, but unfortunately any policy relying on goodwill won’t ever have 100% compliance. You’ll have the ones who don’t agree with them so won’t do it, the ones who are too stupid to understand them, the ones who think they can find a clever way around them, the ones who don’t like the government so won’t comply, the ones who think they’ve got a special reason why the rules don’t apply to them, the ones who say they’re exempt for some reason, the ones who don’t believe in the virus, the ones who just want to do what they like, the ones who say if Dominic Cummings can then I will, the ones who say I go to work/school with 30 people so what’s the point, the ones who say what’s wrong with one extra person etc etc etc. And so it goes on....

Oh yes and add to this list those who say they can’t police it because it’s only advice, it’s not legal etc etc completely missing the whole point...

Instead of focusing on the rule, focus on the goal - the reason limiting contacts works is that it stops you from infecting your friend and vice versa. Going to work is a risk, school is a risk, friends are a risk - at some point you have to start turning off some of those risks to reduce spread; you don't actually want to risk infecting your loved ones so you can presumably buy into that. In some areas there has been spread through pubs, in other areas it's been largely visitors to households - this has led to different rules so that each area has targeted advice to stop doing the things actually leading to infections in that actual area, rather than stopping doing random other things that won't affect infection rates because they don't apply. If in doubt, just keep more distance rather than less. Lives are long, this time will all pass eventually and we'll go back to normal, preferably as many of us as possible.

Never said I wasn't following the rules, doesn't stop be from being of the opinion that they are randomly thought up and are little more than an illusion. Also allows for any blame to be placed at the feet of the public and for the public to turn on each other.

@MrsBrunch sorry I think it's you that doesn't understand...why will the virus "disappear" with 100% compliance?

Well obviously 100% means everyone, not just the UK.

@TheGreatWave

Never said I wasn't following the rules, doesn't stop be from being of the opinion that they are randomly thought up and are little more than an illusion. Also allows for any blame to be placed at the feet of the public and for the public to turn on each other.

Of course the public are to blame if the public don't follow the rules.

People are only confused because they don't want to follow the rules and don't think they should apply to them.

Lives are long, this time will all pass eventually and we'll go back to normal, preferably as many of us as possible.

But lives are not long, myriads of people have died over this period, most likely not having seen family and loved ones. The back to normal will be too late for many.

People are only confused because they don't want to follow the rules and don't think they should apply to them.

Having reason to read rules for three different areas I now have no idea what I can do where.

@TheGreatWave

People are only confused because they don't want to follow the rules and don't think they should apply to them.

Having reason to read rules for three different areas I now have no idea what I can do where.

Pick the most conservative one.

Also allows for any blame to be placed at the feet of the public and for the public to turn on each other.

This is another example of the nanny state. The public is to blame. The human race is spreading the virus. We, the public, are infecting each other.

But I do think the word 'blame' is inappropriate. This is a pandemic that we all have to take individual responsibility for and do what we can to minimise and hopefully, eventually, eradicate it.

I think people need to try and take the emotion out of it, see it for what it is and accept that compliance is our best chance.

This is going to go on until we get a vaccine or enough people have had it and recovered and are immune.
That's not going to happen over night so I think we should all expect the opening up for a while, to keep the economy ticking over and then locking down again as numbers go up.

And the rules are different in different areas because the track and trace has identified where the cases are coming from - as someone said upthread. Some areas the cases have come from pubs and restaurants, other areas from families or parties in people homes.

I keep seeing the phrase 'we need to just live with this' or 'get on with things'

That's exactly what we are doing opening up and shutting down to keep numbers under the limit the NHS can deal with and I should imagine that's how it will be for the next 12 months!

People are only confused because they don't want to follow the rules

I find that such a strange statement. A lot of the confused threads on MN seem to be started by people who are very keen to be perfect about the rules but don't know how to be perfect. My guess is folk who badly don't want to follow the rules... just don't follow the rules. They don't need to talk about it. They've decided what to do already.