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Will disruption over the October half term be the final straw?

309 replies

beanburgerandcheese · 28/09/2020 11:58

Just that - will it be the point that people say enough is enough with this? Summer plans already disrupted, millions have planned for UK breaks through the October half term just to face potential disruption again. ow long will people patience last with this?

OP posts:
DidIMarryAnIdiot · 28/09/2020 20:41

I haven't seen a single family member or friend since March, my children haven't (local lockdown). Am I selfish to want to visit them in October?
Is a £10,000 fine an amount your willing to pay, to spend a week with your terminal ill mother. That's our dilemma. Might be mortally wrong but you know what, I can't help how I feel. So yeh, might be the final straw.

We must also remember, for some people the final straw isn't simply breaking rules, it's worse. The number of overdoses coming in to the local hospital is four fold on the usual number. All ages, young teenagers through to OAP's. I hope to hell these numbers are published after this pandemic ends.
Be kind- I'm not looking for abuse, just wanted to share a different perspective.

myrtilles · 28/09/2020 21:50

@DidIMarryAnIdiot I really hope we don't get a lockdown over half term and hope so much you can see your mum. Hopefully at the very least you could be in a support bubble (hope I have the correct phrase) with her and see her that way. I would email your MP.

I agree with you that there is a huge toll on mental health. Even people who are not normally the worrying sort are finding the uncertainty hard to deal with without adding extra things like having those close to you seriously ill.

wanderings · 28/09/2020 22:27

I think some of us would be less "fed up" with the restrictions if we weren't also "fed up" with the lying, gaslighting, hypocrisy, double standards (Cummings), silly slogans, U-turning, leaking things to the press instead of having the guts to communicate outright, treating us like children, conning the students, encouraging to help the economy then berating us for doing so (eat out to help out), not telling us the exit plan, the blatant creep towards an Orwellian state, and now our own phones telling us at any moment "you must self-isolate for 14 days, because someone who tested positive went somewhere you did, possibly after you left"... This is what many of us are really fed up with. We can understand disruption is to some extent necessary because of the virus, it's the shambles of government that adds insult to injury. Having to put up with this is, in a way, a lot more painful than "disruption".

The reason this seems so hopeless, is that there's no end in sight, no light at the end of the tunnel. Saint Boris told us initially "we can turn this virus around in twelve weeks"; it's now been double that, and it's getting worse, not better. It feels as if the original economy-wrecking lockdown was totally in vain; it hasn't solved the problem, and has left a huge legacy of its own (and Saint Boris will be long gone before that really bites).

Riceandpoppadums · 28/09/2020 22:53

@wanderings very well put, and also the 'divide and rule' seems to be working quite well for the government also

saywha · 28/09/2020 23:04

@wanderings I agree, the past two months with all the chopping and changing has done my head in.

NikeDeLaSwoosh · 29/09/2020 07:21

@NewIdeasToday

We’re in a global pandemic. It won’t stop just because some people ‘lose patience’. This question doesn’t make any sense.
Its not the pandemic with which people have 'lost patience'

It's the ill-advised strategy of attempting to suppress/eradicate the virus that is causing the frustration.

We will have to abandon this policy at some point, the only variable here is how long it takes the Overton window to shift to a point where this is understood/accepted by the population.

Personally, I am losing patience with people's inability to see what must by now be staring them in the face (as unpalatable as it is).

CountessFrog · 29/09/2020 07:36

I totally agree, Nike

Racoonworld · 29/09/2020 07:38

This pandemic is a difficult one. It has a low death rate and disproportionally affects the older population. It has very little affect on the young and healthy. It’s very difficult to ask the general population to change their lives so dramatically long term to protect the old and vulnerable. Of course people are losing patience with it!

middleager · 29/09/2020 07:47

I'm going to book a long weekend the night before if I can. I want to see the sea and try to relax.
It's been a relentless slog and we had a child at home for a fortnight from school.

It wouldn't be the last straw, nor the Christmas holidays. There are bigger fish to fry than holidays.

MotheringShites · 29/09/2020 07:59

@wanderings well said! I don’t think there will be a final straw, as such. Just more and more people finding the current situation intolerable and quietly breaching the rules.

I’m sick of the ever changing, nonsensical rules, u-turns, beratings, failed systems and being treated like a naughty child. I’m sick of the changing narrative (focus moving towards “Long Covid” and away from deaths while the figures don’t fit). What happened to “flatten the curve” while we prepare the health service? There’s no long term plan, no exit plan and no transparency. At no point have they outright said that we are like this until a vaccine is rolled out (years then) but that must now be the plan. I see more and more people saying they will not vaccinate their children against something they have pretty much 100% chance of surviving so how will a vaccine even work? Mandatory vaccine?

We are the frog and the water is warm.

MyPersona · 29/09/2020 08:58

I don't think it was entirely unreasonable for people to plan trips for the October break. I feel a lot of people are at the point now where they are just fed up and want to get back to normal. I can't imagine peoples patience going for too much longer if I'm honest.

Unfortunately it doesn’t matter how fed up or impatient people are, we are still in the middle of a pandemic and ‘getting back to normal’ would lead to a catastrophic outcome. Anyone making travel plans at the moment should factor in the strong likelihood of disruption to those plans.

anon666 · 29/09/2020 17:34

I find that whole concept a massive misunderstanding of the whole situation.

This isn't a voluntary situation that we've voted for, it's a world-wide pandemic.

Imagine how ridiculous it would sound if you said about other natural disasters "Well the people in Montserrat have had enough of the volcano situation, this is the final straw".

It's a virus, it doesn't have a master plan.

tryinghardnottocry · 29/09/2020 17:38

The spread of Spanish flu after WW1 was particularly fast and furious in the second wave which was attributable to troops returning home

This time around it will be the students returning from university who will be bringing it home

Tessabelle1 · 29/09/2020 17:41

@unmarkedbythat our October holiday is one that has been rearranged from April. Can I borrow your crystal ball please so I can see when is reasonable to move it to this time?

ListeningQuietly · 29/09/2020 17:41

Spanish flu killed the young not the old
DIFFERENT disease
DIFFERENT times (not many antibiotics and oxygen CPAPs in 1918)

Shell4429 · 29/09/2020 17:47

People have to get used to life as it is. Anyone would think that we are being restricted for s*ts and giggles. There’s no point in losing patience it’s not going to change anything and how we behave is critical to saving lives. We all hate it, but there’s nothing we can do about it. The quicker we all conform the quicker life can eventually move on.

SoUtterlyGroundDown · 29/09/2020 17:48

@anon666

I find that whole concept a massive misunderstanding of the whole situation.

This isn't a voluntary situation that we've voted for, it's a world-wide pandemic.

Imagine how ridiculous it would sound if you said about other natural disasters "Well the people in Montserrat have had enough of the volcano situation, this is the final straw".

It's a virus, it doesn't have a master plan.

The OP wasn’t referring to people being fed up of the virus, she was referring to people being fed up of the measures that have been put into place to suppress the virus. The virus is natural, the measures are not.
SoUtterlyGroundDown · 29/09/2020 17:49

@tryinghardnottocry

The spread of Spanish flu after WW1 was particularly fast and furious in the second wave which was attributable to troops returning home

This time around it will be the students returning from university who will be bringing it home

Funny how people are so quick to cry ‘this is not the flu’ to anyone who references it, unless they’re talking about how deadly the second wave was, in which everyone is a absolutely allowed to compare it to the flu Grin
karenjkayjay · 29/09/2020 17:56

I would rather me and my children were safe and well over not having a break away in October, as to it being the final straw? What on earth are you on about?

niugboo · 29/09/2020 18:07

If anyone has made plans since March they’ve only got themselves to blame. What exactly do you want to happen?

Tessabelle1 · 29/09/2020 18:31

@niugboo we booked our April holiday LAST YEAR before covid-19 was even heard of. That was cancelled and we moved it to October, 6 months away, the furthest allowed by the caravan park at the time, how exactly am I to blame?

Tessabelle1 · 29/09/2020 18:34

Oh, and to be clear, I've followed EVERY rule and will continue to do so. I'm now waiting for the caravan park to officially cancel my holiday as the park is in Wales, in one of the areas locked down. When I have the option, I will move it again, and hope that we have some way to either eradicate covid-19, or a way to live with it by then.

WendyE · 29/09/2020 18:46

@unmarkedbythat

If people have gone ahead and made plans for October half term since March, then they are a bit silly and shouldn't be at all surprised if said plans are disrupted.
Absolutely agree, especially for anything overseas. I think more local restrictions are on the way as well, so all the more reason to not make any firm plans.
OhMyDarling · 29/09/2020 18:55

The last 6 months for me has seen 2 family members die, Boris announcing changes causing disruption to their funerals just days before the event resulting in massive changes needing to be made, a reduction in income, working from home and on the front line (Essential worker), being the loneliest I’ve ever felt as a single parent with no family nearby, massive stress over both of my kids GCSEs and exams, our year long booked mini break was cancelled (our only holiday) and my brothers wedding abroad was cancelled costing them thousands whilst his partner also lost their job.
So it’s been tough here, I understand it has been tough for everyone. BUT....

I do question people’s resilience when a cancelled holiday is the “final straw”. We are in a pandemic! What do you expect?!!!!!!!!

niugboo · 29/09/2020 19:07

@Tessabelle1 I specifically said if people booked made plans since March. Clearly if you booked your holiday a year before the pandemic took hold my comment isn’t directed at you.

But like everyone else you can blame bad luck. What do you want the government to do?