Urgent - can two households still mix in restaurants?

[buttery81]

I just read that London is going into tier two lockdown from midnight tomorrow, which means no households mixing indoors.

My question is, can two households still mix in a restaurant or pub? Just asking because my brother and SIL were due to come to my house for lunch on Saturday with my nephew, which is no longer allowed. Could we book a restaurant instead?

It's a bit silly if we can as presumably it puts us all at more risk, but if it's a way around the rules then we will do it!

No x

How will they enforce it though? They won't.

We're in a Tier 2 lockdown and have been out a lot recently and we've seen groups of 6+ in every pub. We have to check in with the Track & Trace QR scanner but nobody is interested in how many people are in each group.

Not saying this is right by any means! However if nobody is clamping down on those going against the rules then people will continue to break them.

Speak for yourself! Many people are following guidance.

As were my friends.

The new bands come in the end of Friday evening according to tv, just now. So no fun on Saturday, or last night parties.

@DeliciouslyFemale

Speak for yourself! Many people are following guidance.

As were my friends.

I'm not sure they were if they interacted i.e. spoke with the neighbouring table, but I also am not sure how much I care to continue arguing

@Athrawes and the virus will just magically disappear will it ?

@PracticingPerson. We won't be breaking the rules. But neither do we intend to barricade ourselves in the house unless required by law. This utterly incompetent government is unlikely to have the situation under control any time soon and is refusing to provide proper help to businesses affected. So to some extent we do all need to crack on and spend money where we can.

Fwiw, I would support a two or three week national 'circuit-breaker' lockdown with everything shut. Schools, pubs, everything. But this wishy-washy tier 1, 2 and 3 stuff is likely to drag on for months.

[quote userxx]@Athrawes and the virus will just magically disappear will it ?[/quote]

Er, well the r rate could drop, and if it dropped we would have fewer new infections.

It's not magic, just the way viruses work.

It is spreading more because people are passing it on.

no same as essex who voluntarily have asked to be put into tier 2

our numbers are nowhere near as bad

I'm not barricaded in my house

But neither am I seeking ingenious ways around the no households mixing rules.

However @MessAllOver I agree with your view that the tier 1/2/3 is wishy-washy and will drag on.

Up in Northumberland 2 pubs have been shut down for 2 weeks and faced fines as police did spot checks and informed the council that there was evidence of multiple households mixing. It is happening and we have been under Local restrictions for a while now so everyone knows the rules...

@sunshinesupermum

I'm supposed to be seeing DD1 and my grandsons in their home on Sunday - only 5 of us in one house and I'd be driving there. After only two meetings together this year after lockdown ended I am so upset to be missing out on their childhood. I'm the one at risk of illhealth, not them, as am not mixing otherwise at all. Really bad for my mental health.

Just go to the park, or woods, or river/canal, anywhere outside really will be nice for the grandsons anyway.

You can't.

But in theory you can go to the pub and each sit separately on tables alongside each other. 🙄

@DeliciouslyFemale

I shall be getting a taxi later, in order to pick up my daughter from her college. She has SN and underlying conditions, so when I phone I’ll say I need one that has a screen between the driver and passenger and that the driver must wear a mask. 50% of the time I will still have to ask them to wear a mask and they’ll say they don’t have to because the rules say so. I will YET AGAIN have to point out that I requested it during booking. Now that’s probably causing a higher risk of the spread of this horrible virus more that three people sitting two metres apart in a large restaurant. But I’m sure the offended posters are fine with that, because it’s ‘within’ the rules.

When our pupils are collected the taxi drivers 75% of the time are either not wearing masks, or have them below their mouths covering their beards/chins. Because beards are a terrible carrier of Covid of course

@MrsJBaptiste

How will they enforce it though? They won't.

We're in a Tier 2 lockdown and have been out a lot recently and we've seen groups of 6+ in every pub. We have to check in with the Track & Trace QR scanner but nobody is interested in how many people are in each group.

Not saying this is right by any means! However if nobody is clamping down on those going against the rules then people will continue to break them.

Tier 2 only started yesterday!

Here is the official guidance.

Midnight Friday night it kicks in.
So tomorrow night the pubs round my way will be heaving like NY eve with all the teens …. well until 9.30/10

There still seem to be plenty of restaurants in London with outside tables. Could you just book one of them? Weather seems okay for Saturday.

Maybe we'd be more inclined to obey the spirit of the rules (as opposed to the letter, which we will obey) if we lived close to family. There's no 'let's meet for a nice walk in the park this afternoon' option for us since they live so far away. What Tier 2 means for us is DC potentially not seeing their grandparents until it's lifted. If the government imposed complete lockdown for a fortnight, we'd respect that and visit afterwards but god only knows how long this will go on for.

I live in London. I refuse to follow this bullshit anymore. I live in a one bedroom flat in London. i have no fucking garden. It’s cold, it’s rainy and there aren’t any parks nearby. Zoom can fuck off as can outside walks in the cold and wet. I’ve followed every shitty rule up until now but honestly. Not any more. How dare they do this to us when they are the reason it’s all fucked. They have now had 7 MONTHS to get a track and trade in place - all they’ve achieved is paying their cronies £7500 A DAY for something that completely fails. Why should I have my life suffer due to their sheer ineptitude? I’m young - I wouldn’t even be allowed a vaccine until 22 at the earliest! So they basically expect me to catch it anyway - so all of this is for nothing anyway! There’s also PROOF that indoor cases account to only 5% of transmission... by reducing quarantine to 7 days for tourists and letting everyone mix at school and work anyway it will still spread just as fast 😡

@ChaChaCha2012

They can't enforce it, the police don't have the manpower. But if people keep ignoring the rules then they'll call in the army. Is that what you want?

Oh good God, how dramatic.

I think you can outside - so find a pub garden with heaters!

I'm sorry OP. I'm in London. I'm hugely frustrated by this news. I'm law-abiding. I adhered to lockdown fully. I've also spent the past seven months leading a huge volunteering effort locally so, not to polish my halo or anything, but I muck in and help where I can. But I see that these restrictions - or stricter - seem to have done little to reduce rates of infection elsewhere in the country, I don't think the gov't has a clue what it's doing and I still hear "Barnard Castle" every time the PM deigns to address us. So I'll comply, again, but I'm expecting no positive impact on infection but quite a few good things in my life taken away.

@AllieCat26

I live in London. I refuse to follow this bullshit anymore. I live in a one bedroom flat in London. i have no fucking garden. It’s cold, it’s rainy and there aren’t any parks nearby. Zoom can fuck off as can outside walks in the cold and wet. I’ve followed every shitty rule up until now but honestly. Not any more. How dare they do this to us when they are the reason it’s all fucked. They have now had 7 MONTHS to get a track and trade in place - all they’ve achieved is paying their cronies £7500 A DAY for something that completely fails. Why should I have my life suffer due to their sheer ineptitude? I’m young - I wouldn’t even be allowed a vaccine until 22 at the earliest! So they basically expect me to catch it anyway - so all of this is for nothing anyway! There’s also PROOF that indoor cases account to only 5% of transmission... by reducing quarantine to 7 days for tourists and letting everyone mix at school and work anyway it will still spread just as fast 😡

I understand the anger but it was 30% in pubs/restaurants/cafes and that was not including staff.

Just find a nice pub with outdoor heaters (I imagine loads of them will be investing in them this winter) and take a few cosy fleecy blankets with you.