Removing support bubbles

[SleeplessGeordie]

Surely they can't do this? I assumed it was an oversight not allowing them from the start. It's inhumane to expect people who live alone to see no one at all. We already did almost three months of hell at the beginning of lockdown! And that was made slightly easier because everything was closed, we were all stuck at home to some extent. The idea that schools are open with kids mixing freely, people are out and about not told to "stay home" whilst some of us aren't allowed human contact, is just so wrong.
Surely they cannot inflict this on people who have done nothing wrong?
Lockdown has taken away everything from me, in all areas of life and hope for the future.
Now they are threatening to put me and others in solitary confinement.
All this "Oh we can't lock down the vulnerable, that's unreasonable" yet it's fine to lock away people who live alone, who are more likely to be dealing with grief over losing, or never having family, partners etc? WTF?

I don't think setting a distance for support bubbles is fair. You can't help if a family member or partner lives a distance away

If support bubbles are removed I won’t comply. I’ve complied with everything else. I live alone and WFH. There’s no way I’m going to stop seeing my partner again. The loneliness nearly broke me last time.

They might attempt to do it, but they’d only make themselves look even more incompetent because enough people will have no problem with ignoring it.

@ExpectBetter

I didn't mean literally one mile, but a distance based on miles!!!

E.g. 30 miles - what is a reasonable distance for a support bubble?

I agree with you

Apologies! I’m a bit touchy about it...as you have probably guessed...

I mostly agree @Gobacktothe90s
If you travel to your bubble without stopping anywhere I don’t see what difference it really makes to anyone. I can see that it is better not to mix people from low infection areas with high infection areas, except they already are with school and work. Many of the children I teach come into the county from the county my daughter lives in, and from a part of it I’m fairly sure will have higher numbers than her bit, but I’m not allowed to go to her house in my car without seeing anyone else on the way.

Yes, I also agree about the distance criteria being a bit arbitrary also, but it is better than a county border, which could be 0.5 miles from one person or 20 miles from another.

County borders are meaningless to a virus and are administrative structures. Perhaps a suitable distance could be anything that can be travelled to without needing to stop for food, loo etc? There has to be something better than a county border.

I was just proposing a distance as a compromise between the government scrapping them or limiting them to counties.

As pp said, school catchment areas often cross borders. My DC school has pupils from several counties.

Maybe the answer is simply to stick a form online to formalise one support bubble and that would stop people using them as an excuse to socialise with different people each week.

@lilypond2 you may like last time ? I went 86 days without a proper face to face conversation or any physical contact with another human being. Am I bollocks doing that again, and where I live will be Tier 3 next week

I would ignore any 'guidance' that kept my only child from other child company for anything longer than 14 days. Luckily my brother and his 3 kids agree. Only children being alone for 3 months with only adult company isn't OK these days.

My area will without doubt be tier 3, we've been in local lockdown for ages. We were breaking the law for some time anyway since the government couldn't explain how me and my dp were meant to carry on our work in the NHS without my in laws who provide our childcare outside of the paid for wrap around care (paid care doesnt exist after 18:00 or on weekends round here). Thankfully they relaxed that rule and allowed informal childcare in local lockdown areas but if support bubbles aren't allowed then I doubt childcare will be. I guess we'll see but I'll be continuing as we are regardless... I've got my local paper sad face ready if I get fined "nhs hero to criminal thanks to government incompetence"