Anyone in Greater Manchester, what do you want?

[starfish4]

Just wondering what the people of Greater Manchester want regarding it's Tier level? I'm aware your stuck in the middle of this mess with little say

1. Tier 3 to reduce the virus levels and save lives, long term side affects

1. Tier 2 (i) to help the economy or (ii) so you can continue to enjoy your lives as much as possible helping your mental health

1. Two week circuit break (i) for your area or (ii) whole country

Anyone who has booked a holiday, wedding etc for the rest of this year or next year is off their rocker.
This needs to be brought under control.

But they’re not all booking stuff now are they?
I know a teacher who was due to marry in July the weekend schools usually break up. At the beginning of April it became clear that it wasn’t going to happen so they rearranged both the wedding and honeymoon for the same time next year. Back in April nobody anticipated we’d still be in the same mess by summer next year. Plus, much better to move everything that lose thousands in deposits.

Bold is not my friend today

I think my biggest concern at the moment is that the government will unilaterally impose tier 3 on us despite any threats of legal challenges, and businesses will be worse off than they would have been if AB had accepted the government's offer yesterday.

A descent into much tighter restrictions feels inevitable anyway but things are so much different than they were in March and it didn't work quickly in March at all - Grandparents can provide childcare, and both DTs and DH are at school mixing with god knows how many households. There's so such thing as 'safe at home' for us any more.

@NellyJames

When our great grandchildren are studying this in history, the antics of Bellend Cummings’ jaunt to Barnard Castle will be cited as the pivotal moment when the country thought, fuck it!

I've said the same thing in the last few months.

It's something I've thought frequently about other decisions made during the Pandemic, including what AB is doing now. Only history can judge, but let's hope it's not too disastrous.

Live in Bolton 2nd September to be pulled out of restrictions 8th September put into emergency restrictions so bad pubs and restaurants had to throw people already in out at 14.00 when restrictions announced at lunchtime. Then back into tier 2 with the rest of greater manchester pubs etc opened again more freedom to see people rule of 6 now applies.
Now probably back into tier 3 but pubs and restaurants can still be open
Students back not as many as Manchester but main uni accommodation is 2 minutes from train station less than 5.00 and a 20 minute journey to better night out.
Not a clue what is the solution lots of locals just nipping into neighbours for a brew and if the kids are off taking them with them to play together. It's the culture in certain area families socialise with each other at home don't have the pub culture it's a man thing they go out to socialise with other men.
Relative involved with Tand T it appears that covid just spontaneously arrives as nobody has socialised where they shouldn't

I honestly think that Boris saved one man's career at the cost of many people's lives.

I didn't think fuck it, but it was a stupendously bad decision by BJ and I understand why others have thought that.

3 ii) Two week circuit break for whole country

@NellyJames

*Anyone who has booked a holiday, wedding etc for the rest of this year or next year is off their rocker. This needs to be brought under control.*

But they’re not all booking stuff now are they?
I know a teacher who was due to marry in July the weekend schools usually break up. At the beginning of April it became clear that it wasn’t going to happen so they rearranged both the wedding and honeymoon for the same time next year. Back in April nobody anticipated we’d still be in the same mess by summer next year. Plus, much better to move everything that lose thousands in deposits.

I wouldn’t book anything for next year, the year after, or the year after that. No one knows when or how this will end. Anyone who books anything is a fool.

Why is anyone who books anything a fool?

In Lincolnshire here, low area. Why should we be subjected to a national lockdown when cases here are low when other areas are not doing as they should, a circuit breaker should not be done. Manchester should be in Tier 3, Andy Burnham is a disgrace.

I'm in Oldham and think we should remain in tier 2. Tier 3 will cause so much damage to the local enconomy. It's worth bearing in mind that it's nit just the impact on pubs forced to close. It's then the impact on the companies supplying them with beer and other drinks and on singers etc. who had bookings. Then you've got the drivers who deliver the drinks etc. The taxi drivers who become surplus to requirements when people aren't going out for a drink.

There's a balance to be struck and personally, I don't think continually closing things down works -cases just rise again when things open up.

We are supposed to go away on Fri in the UK, booked a year ago before this fiasco started. I am not currently in a position to cancel because at the moment we can still travel but with less than a week to go, so much uncertainty is causing a lot of stress. Either way, I just want to know now.

As a pp said surely the people who are ignoring the current rules (hence cases still rising) will continue to ignore the new rules too, you just add in a layer of extra financial hardship

^^ This. You only have to read these types of threads to understand that a significant proportion of people are not following the rules already (in Tier 2). Evident in reality too. Tier 3 would create economic hardship plus even more or a divide/resentment between the people who are following the rules and those who aren't.

It doesn't really make a difference to me, I'm a carer in a home with 6 Covid positive residents on my floor and 3 positive care assistants. I have taken the step to isolate my self away from anyone including my children. It's really killing me not being able to see them but if I passed it onto them I would never forgive myself as we think my youngest has got asthma but it hasn't been diagnosed but been given an inhaler

@Tigerswife, the stats show that the main culprit here was/is students. Do you think all 100 thousand of them are actually from Manchester? Large numbers of them will have arrived here from areas just like yours. Do you think the vast majority of us up here are just disregarding the advice? It’s just not like that. We’re a large urban area so obviously people are living closer to each other than in most of Lincolnshire. Add to that close to one hundred thousand students arriving en masse all of whom are desperate to socialise and enjoy university life and all knowing that broadly speaking, they’re unlikely to get ill. Universities should never have allowed students to start back. Everything is online anyway. That’s been the main cause of this spike. Keeping in mind that we were behind the South in the first wave so the opening up of everything again was just too early for up here as our numbers needed a few wks more to recede meaning as it planned out, our numbers never got back down sufficiently. And on top of all that, Sage are recommending the circuit breaker and have conceded that a move to tier 3 may make little difference. So the government are picking and choosing which bits of the science they want to follow. It’s all political.

So it’s not quite as simple as the people of Manchester not quite doing as they should.

I’m in Manchester. I don’t want tier 3 at all. It’ll be devastating to so many businesses and people’s livelihoods. We’ve been effectively in tier 2 since July/August and it’s done naff all for infection rates. They’re just going up. I’d accept a two week circuit break, although I would want schools to stay open.

I am largely following the rules (had people in the house, which has been against the rules since end of July, three times, so a limited and specific bit of rule breaking!) but I know lots of people are not following them at all. The restrictions here have been going on for so long and not working that nobody will part any attention to further restrictions, especially if they deprive the area.

I totally blame the incompetent government for mishandling the whole thing. I refuse to blame ordinary people not following inconsistent and confusing demands from posh boys who only give a shit about the south, and don’t even follow the rules themselves.