Would you support a lock down NZ style now?

[Bubblesbubblesmybubbles]

Just wondered how people would feel if, say, we were told we will shut borders next tuesday (as an example - gives people time to get home) and we will then lock down hard in order to offer normality after? It wouldnt have worked at the first lock down as i dont think many expected this to go on so long but maybe it could now?!

Personally I find this mid ground frustrating! If we did that then it would be sooner that theatres, sports, everything could resume BUT I am aware I am very lucky that I can work from home so wouldnt be financially impacted. Long term - I feel like our economy would be hit hard initially but recover faster and stronger

I know it wont happen but I just see friends in Australia and NZ and am so very jealous!

Yep. But we won't get one as it doesn't fit the current narrative. We would never have got one as our government are a bunch of arses.

We couldn't close our borders in the same way as Australia and New Zealand because we are reliant on imports, particularly food imports, from the near continent which come in via the tunnel and ferry.

I’m in NZ. We could still import food/ goods during lockdown but not people but I suppose the fact that it all comes by ship/ plane makes it easier.
Even now that it all feels back to normal , some NZ residents are still only now coming back here and are kept in special facilities rather than trusted to quarantine at home.
Could that work with the bigger number of UK residents that might return?

No, because elements of the UK population have already proven themselves to be too ill-disciplined/carefree for a NZ lockdown to work here as it seemingly has done there & look at Spain, they had a hard lockdown...

As usual the Norn border gets ignored. What's your solution to that OP? Tell Norn residents that they aren't allowed to travel to rUK? If eradication was such a sure and feasible strategy, why have so few countries achieved it? How much higher would you like YOUR tax bill be to pay for the law enforcement, lost salaries, mental health problems etc to pay for your lockdown plan - what is your willingness-to-pay? I know my WTP has hit 0.

Don't returning NZers have to pay £2000 each for quarantine to possibly return?

I know nothing about imports into New Zealand so happy to be corrected, but I would guess that most imports are unacccompanied freight and it is easy to contain ship and flight crew at ports and airports. In the UK, we get a lot of imports via lorry on very short crossings via ferry or channel tunnel. The logistics of doing a contactless trailer swap on every lorry entering the UK would be mind-boggling! We are also a net importer of food (I think New Zealand is a net exporter) so there is a real risk of food shortages, hence why some people are concerned about a hard Brexit causing a clog at the border.

We couldn't close our borders in the same way as Australia and New Zealand because we are reliant on imports, particularly food imports, from the near continent which come in via the tunnel and ferry.

Agreed..and add to that the airfreighting in of PPE and other medical related supplies that can't be quickly sourced in the UK.

Even if you banned personal travel completely a lot of essential workers with tasks relating to transport and logistics ( Brits and non Brits) would have to continue crossing the UK Border both inbound and outbound.

MummyPop00

No, because elements of the UK population have already proven themselves to be too ill-disciplined/carefree

Yep...

Before suggesting the populist approach of "building a wall" (which won't work for reasons stated above) it might be best if HMG actually put some effort into ensuring quarantine procedures were followed...failing that maybe a restriction on personal travel..

@lljkk - I think they do now but back at the beginning, the government paid.

@lljkk it was kind of a hypothetical without much thought, not ignoring Ireland just a vague pondering!

I have NO issue paying higher taxes generally. I would love a Sweden type tax system as I see the benefits! But it's not up to me.

I agree we dont have the compliance sadly but maybe we would if they said 'we are trying to achieve normality', who knows

Interesting to hear opinions on my sunday morning pondering

Not really because the closed borders in Australia mean at least a 100k Aussies are stuck outside of their own country. That's what it will take to achieve those results.

Which is the point of closing borders when the virus is Here in the community and hasn’t been brought by people travelling from abroad ?
No id not support it. Haven’t seen my family since the last year because I’m from abroad and haven’t been able to see them. I barely have any social life cuz I believe that this is what helps not spreading the virus rather than closing the borders.

It’s too late for a lockdown here even if one was practical which it isn’t due to the fact that, as has already been said, a lot of imports come by lorries on ferries with one driver from Europe to here There are simply too many cases within UK borders.

Today closing the borders would have to be accompanied by a total lockdown with no one, not even essential workers, allowed out (to stop all community transmission) which is never going to happen as the death rate this would cause would be higher than deaths caused by the virus.

This might have worked back at the beginning with the borders completely closed and all returning UK citizens treated the way the returnees from Wuhan were treated with them being driven direct from the airport to hospital quarantine but there are simply too many cases in the U.K. now.

NZ is a country bigger than the UK, with a population less than that of Scotland alone. They're also not connected to their nearest neighbour by a road, and have a population who are used to not being able to pop to Spain for a long weekend.

It wouldn't work here.

Plus I'll be very interested to see what happens to NZ when they do open up. Vaccination is not going to get rid of Covid completely.

I'm in Melbourne OP. There's no need to be jealous of everyone in Aus.

We have been in severe lockdown since July. We're not allowed further than 5 km from home and DC are only starting back to school next week since June.

It's been tough!

Would the UK population put themselves through what's actually needed to get your numbers properly down? No, I don't think you would.

Our numbers in Victoria today are 15. But apparently that's not low enough yet and we still have no date for leaving lockdown.

I think that Nz has achieved low numbers but if we did the same our economy would be stuffed.

We/the govt need to financially support Those who are vulnerable and can’t wfh. The rest need to get on with it as this virus clearly isn’t going anywhere. Let the huge majority who will only suffer mild symptoms get back to normal.

No I wouldn't support it. We can't even enforce the measures we have now, like mask wearing. It's all an utter waste of time if we don't do things properly.

@DivGirl

You hit nail on head... NZ has not cured itself.. It merely shut the virus out.. Is it going to be able to continue doing that?
They had outbreaks as soon as people travelled in for a funeral and somebody "got" out of the quarentine facility.
With what we know of people being infected but un symptomatic there is likely going to be some importing of covid once travel to and from nz is restarted.
So unless nz wishes to stay as an isolated island for however long an effective vaccination takes and then continue to have incredibly stringent immigration and travel restrictions, they will eventually get the virus there again. They then go back into lockdown?
Continual closed borders affects tourism, industry and families.. Can nz do that for years?

NZ has not cured itself

Exactly. It is far too soon to call any countries handling a success or a failure on this one, that’s only something that the history books will be able to tell.

The discrepancy in different countries approach to testing and recording of death statistics is too great to be able to compare

No, it's not sustainable. Even with a vaccination programme it won't 'work' straight away, unless we could sustain it for an indefinite amount of time, it's better to have slightly less measures but realistic ones. It's a marathon not a sprint and all that.

NZ cuts itself off from the world and nobody really notices or cares. It’s too isolated.

They could potentially be isolated until a vaccine is ready, whenever that happens. I guess they really prepared to do that ...

The U.K. can’t really do that. It’s too central in terms of commerce and travel, too many would be affected if cut off from the rest of the world. Would you really want to be isolated until a vaccine is found? Do you really expect multicultural families to stay apart for potentially months to years?

We're too populous and we have a land border with another country.

Way too late for that now. Even Victoria with its severe lockdown still has stubborn cases arising. This virus isn't going away easily.

Exactly @ReefTeeth - my family is in Melbourne and have been locked down for months for what looks like a tiny number of cases from here. They're certainly not going about their lives as normal.