What would make you start following the rules? (If you’re not yet doing so)

[Chestergirl39]

Ok so Boris has been clear on the reasons why we need stricter rules. Rates are rising, hospitalisations are rising, test and trace not working, we need to take action collectively.....

But, still hearing from colleagues and posts on here about how they’re planning to get around the rules, ignore the rules, how they’re special, exempt etc etc...

What would it take to make you follow them? (If you’re not already?) Will the threat of fines make a difference?

If they get their testing sorted out

I have largely followed the 'rules' so far but I am now going to follow the science and use my common sense. I will also break 'rules' if I believe it is necessary to meet my severely disabled child's needs because the government doesn't give a shit about people like him.

Have followed them and will continue to try and keep this area down

Can understand why it’s hard in Scotland with no indoor mixing

We were following the rules, but there's now no end goal from the government (it's clear that as soon as you "unlock" cases will rise - I can't believe they seemed surprised by that), DH's mental health is taking a beating (he has a history of depression), and we've got a baby due this year. We're going to have to break the rules for everyone's mental and physical health.

So many of these I agree with.

If Johnson had come on TV last night and shown a shred of humility about where the Government had failed, especially with Test, Track and Test and talked about measures that they were also going to put in place to improve things from their end then maybe I’d have given what he did say slightly more credence.

If he’d fired Cummings over Barnard Castle and wasn’t proposing that the Government broke international law in only a ‘specific and limited way’ only last week then that might have made me feel less like the law is optional when it suits.

If he was pulling people in from across Parliament to help manage this, getting the people who were best suited for each job in place rather than ideologically picking hard Brexiteers to manage everything then I may have more faith that the collective intelligence of Parliament was being used to the countries advantage.

If he wasn’t simultaneously intent on delivering us Brexit when he was offered an opportunity to put negotiations on hold I may think that he had his eye completely on the pandemic ball.

However, instead, he shifted the blame to them people’ and failed in any way to accept any part of the burden of responsibility. I’m not a natural rule breaker at all. I’ve only socialised with one other household at a time. But I don’t think his rules are entirely logical and I have no confidence in his judgement so I will continue to apply my own risk assessments to each situation I find myself in - and I certainly won’t judge others that are doing the same.

I also in no way want further restrictions.

@Nicedayforawedding

I’m following the rules, does piss me off that everyone else thinks they’re exempt though!

Plain selfish imo. If everyone did follow the rules we wouldn’t be heading for another lockdown.

How so? We locked down completely for months and the virus is still with us. What makes you think people following the rules now will make a big difference? I thought we locked down to give the government a chance to get a handle on things but they haven't even managed to come up with a decent track and trace system. Johnson needs to sack the entire cabinet and bring back people with experience of running a country, not this incompetent bunch of brexiteers.

Johnson's a twit but I do follow the rules and anyway I don't want a fine.

"When the government begins to address all the other elephants in the room which are currently being ignored because of its obsession with Covid: the tanking economy, the death of the high street, the collapse of the arts industry, the impact on mental health, the impact on education, the lack of dental care, the colossal impact on NHS services..."

All of these things are happening because of Covid. When death rates increase people dont go out spending money and the economy tanks. But there are enough people spreading the virus so that the NHS can not treat the backlog from the first wave.

I understand the resentment of Boris and the frequently illogical restrictions - but the more people mix and the more refuse to wear masks or wear them badly the less of a health service we have. And the more the economy suffers and people lose their jobs, but less chance there will be benefits to support them. That's illogical too.

I've seen my child once since February and it's unlikely I will be able to see them at Christmas, if they are still alive, because they are a key worker.

If everyone gives people as much space as they can, wears a mask properly when they cant and hand sanitises/ cleans metal and plastic surfaces carefully the virus will again decline and restrictions can lessen again.

I'm following the rules now but needed to travel during lockdown for proper reasons (and called police to check it was allowed). They need to clarify rules on the need to care for adults with sn and also young adults with parents who don't live together (at 17 and 11 months they can split their time between parents, at 18 they had to choose which parent and not see the other for weeks officially which is wrong).

Thank you to all the posters here who have explained things so well. It feels like a breath of fresh air to hear people applying their own mental faculties to the situation in a calm and measured way. Agree with almost everything here.

I had a family of 3 join my family of 4 for lunch on sunday. We visited another family of 3 on a different day. We will be continuing to do exactly this, and on none of these occasions will I be attempting to force social distancing on my two toddlers. Given that our socialising takes place almost exclusively at our home or others, I fail to see how anyone will know or who would intervene if they did? I can't see police patrols or 'covid wardens' in my quiet suburban corner of the city tbh.

@alreadytaken

If everyone gives people as much space as they can, wears a mask properly when they cant and hand sanitises/ cleans metal and plastic surfaces carefully the virus will again decline and restrictions can lessen again.

Once the virus has declined enough that we're allowed to do certain things again, the virus will spread again. It always will when restrictions are eased. It wont go away! I wonder how many times the curve has to peak and trough for people to realise this.
"Follow the rules and this will go away quicker".... err no it won't. People followed the rules back in March for months and look where we are now. Spain had a ridiculously strict lockdown and now have more cases than March.

I have and am following the rules but I will probably break the rule of six at some point. The only other people I am at all likely to socialise with will make a total of seven people from two households. I don’t see what possible difference leaving out one person from one of the households can make as it seems likely if someone has the virus they are going to pass it on to their household anyway. It has to be far less ‘risky’ than mixing with five people all from different homes, just not as easy to police.

I'm in Scotland. My DPs are in their 80s.

Haven't ventured out to a restaurant or cafe since February. Zero way I'm making them meet there, with much higher likelihood of meeting other people who might have covid, than in their own house where I can sit two metres away and am the only person they will see inside.

Plus DM would likely have a panic attack if we tried to meet out somewhere.

So yes I'm breaking that one, but it may just about scrape into care of the elderly.

I do follow the rules,
plenty dont
or dont want to think the rules apply to them,

How did the 1918 pandemic die out?

I’m not particularly concerned about fines as I don’t think getting caught is at all likely. Maybe if it were a huge amount of money or prison I’d think twice but I still think the rules should be based around number of households mixing not individuals.

I think it would help people keep to the restrictions if there was a defined end game. Delaying tactics are all very well IF there is a prospect of an end in site i.e eradication of the virus (nigh on impossible now); realistic hope of a new theory (definite improvement but no magic bullet yet) or a vaccine that works (I am getting increasingly doubtful this will provide a long lasting solution given the mutability of this virus). I just no longer know what the goal is in the restrictions so do understand why a lot of people are not following the rules even if I am still keeping to them myself.

Therapy not theory

"Once the virus has declined enough that we're allowed to do certain things again, the virus will spread again. It always will when restrictions are eased. It wont go away! I wonder how many times the curve has to peak and trough for people to realise this."

If the restrictions are followed it will not increase again to the level at which the NHS is overrun and the economy tanks. Meanwhile new treatments will be trialled and work on vaccines continues. We will get to the stage where this becomes something like flu, we will live with it without the same restrictions.

Spain reopened it's nightclubs, they still hug and kiss when meeting. We are not Sweden, who voluntarily complied with restrictions and will now need to comply with more - but we dont have to be Brazil with 138,000 deaths or America with over 200,000 deaths (both under-reporting, as we are now) or Spain either.

I have followed the rules throughout.

But if we’re told that my children can be crammed in with others all day and we can go to the pub and the shops, but I can’t see my sister and mum in my own house, I won’t comply with that.

I don’t want to go to the pub and don’t care about the shops. I don’t mind if schools close. I can work from home.

But I do care if I can’t see my sister. I haven’t been seeing anyone else since March. I’d rather we both just stayed home and only saw each other which is much lower risk than what the government are suggesting. Only we wouldn’t be spending any money.

Oh sorry I didn't really answer the question.
Apologies when they get things wrong would help, like perhaps acknowledging that Eat Out to Help out wasn't a great idea.

Putting money into teaching so proper online provision if needed and funding for parents who can't work.

I know it's irrelevant but personally I'd feel a lot better if I thought the senior politicians had any intentions of following the rules themselves. I can already picture the entire Johnson clan guffawing together at Christmas without a fig given to distancing.

I don't like Nicola Sturgeon particularly, but at least she does appear to be following her own diktats.

How did the 1918 pandemic die out?
It didn't. That strain of flu is still around. Over time everyone either got it and died or got over it and was immune. The virus also weakened and caused less serious illness. So now its just one of several flu strains.

Like others, when the rules seem to make sense, plus when I have received some financial support instead of being completely abandoned by the Government to just get into debt, the result of which has been a massive decline in my mental health and a feeling that we are not all in this together.

The rules don't actually bother me that much to be honest. I hate wearing masks but it just means I'll stop going to places that require them rather than go and not wear one. However if my parents come round im not going to make someone stand outside so there's only 6 of us instead of 7 In the house.