Couples in established relationships have to socially distance

[avenueq]

in tier two and three, unless they can form a support bubble.
So that means no relationships between students. Or between say a woman with two adult kids living at home and a man who lives with his mother, or in a shared flat.
Is that reasonable? I don't think it is.

Well fuck that.

I am THE most compliant, rule-following person and have been through this whole pandemic (in spite of this utterly incompetent, corrupt government), but am I just about to sign up to spend the next x months through winter on my own? To the detriment of my mental health, just like spring, only worse.

The Govt is telling me that I can spend all day in the pub or a shopping mall, but can’t instead stay home and see my OH at the weekend?

Fuck. That.

@bellinisurge

What do you think people have been doing in Manchester since August?

Enjoying the great outdoors?

For crying out loud, anyone would think you were being asked to stay away from other people forever! It's for the short term, at most a year in total.

You need to be more creative in how you interact with people - there are loads of technologies to help, and you can still meet in parks, etc. (Apart from tier 3)

It isn't bollocks. It's the law and will save lives. Don't you care about anyone else?

@Jaxhog

For crying out loud, anyone would think you were being asked to stay away from other people forever! It's for the short term, at most a year in total.

You need to be more creative in how you interact with people - there are loads of technologies to help, and you can still meet in parks, etc. (Apart from tier 3)

It isn't bollocks. It's the law and will save lives. Don't you care about anyone else?

Is this your discreet way of suggesting everyone gets vibrators

@Jaxhog

For crying out loud, anyone would think you were being asked to stay away from other people forever! It's for the short term, at most a year in total.

You need to be more creative in how you interact with people - there are loads of technologies to help, and you can still meet in parks, etc. (Apart from tier 3)

It isn't bollocks. It's the law and will save lives. Don't you care about anyone else?

I live alone. I work from home. I get my shopping delivered. I saw no-one in person for three months in the spring. Do you have any idea what that does to your mental health?

I don’t go to pubs or restaurants or museums or any of the places I’m allowed to go, because I want to keep the risk of catching or passing on Covid to the absolute minimum. My DP is the same. I refuse to believe there is any more risk inherent in seeing my DP than doing all the things I am allowed to do, that have a cash register attached.

Standing in the park in the cold and pouring rain is not an adequate substitute for human touch (I don’t mean sex, I just mean human touch). Anyone who lives alone will understand.

It's all very well for people married or living with partners. But think about young people and students. A year, at a 2 metre gap from the person you love, when the virus poses very little risk to you. It is wrong. Most countries have allowed established relationships or, in The Netherlands, sex -buddies.

There's a difference between shagging randoms/casual dating and not seeing someone you've potentially been with for years for 12-18 months. Being in a committed relationship usually involves kissing and holding hands with your partner etc. Without some kind of romantic element it's not a relationship.

If I can't see my partner this time around I'll not cope. He's my only social contact currently. To those that live with DPs and suggest that live-apart couples don't see each other - could I suggest you do the same? Me and my partner both work in isolated surroundings, go to shops and that's pretty much it. We both live with 1 other person = 4 in total, so similar to your standard to your nuclear family. How are we possibly posing more risk to society than a couple that both go to work and whose DC in bubbles of hundreds. Would love to know.

I will certainly tell my student dd that it's perfectly understandable if she still sees her boyfriend "close up"

@Flowersinthewindowstill Amen

The thing is though, everyone has different priorities and everyone wants to be allowed to do the things that are important to them.

I want to see my parents and my sister but I can’t. Does someone’s desire to see their boyfriend/ girlfriend trump my desire to see my family? Or DS’s desire to have contact with other children?

The problem is, if everyone got what they wanted there’d be no restrictions... which might not be a bad thing...

@Jaxhog

For crying out loud, anyone would think you were being asked to stay away from other people forever! It's for the short term, at most a year in total.

You need to be more creative in how you interact with people - there are loads of technologies to help, and you can still meet in parks, etc. (Apart from tier 3)

It isn't bollocks. It's the law and will save lives. Don't you care about anyone else?

You really think it's OK to ask couples to only see eachother outside or over zoom for a year?

I live alone. I work from home. I get my shopping delivered. I saw no-one in person for three months in the spring. Do you have any idea what that does to your mental health?

I don’t go to pubs or restaurants or museums or any of the places I’m allowed to go, because I want to keep the risk of catching or passing on Covid to the absolute minimum. My DP is the same. I refuse to believe there is any more risk inherent in seeing my DP than doing all the things I am allowed to do, that have a cash register attached.

"Standing in the park in the cold and pouring rain is not an adequate substitute for human touch (I don’t mean sex, I just mean human touch). Anyone who lives alone will understand*

As someone who also lives alone i understand and completely agree. However as you live alone you can form a support bubble with your DP. That said, even for established couples who aren't eligible to form a support bubble, I don't think they should have to go back to being 2m apart - they already had to do that from March to early September. I am very much a rule follower, but if wasn't eligible for a support bubble, this would be the rule I would break.

Totally unreasonable and if this had been the case when I was 18 I would not have complied.

I want to see my parents and my sister but I can’t. Does someone’s desire to see their boyfriend/ girlfriend trump my desire to see my family? Or DS’s desire to have contact with other children?

But you aren't in a long term romantic relationship with your parents and sister. Kissing, cuddling, touch and sex aren't a fundamental part of your relationship with them.

@RichardMarxisinnocent Unfortunately my DP lives with his elderly parents (another reason we don’t go out beyond seeing each other), who have contact with other relatives, so the bubble doesn’t apply. I’m sure this is incredibly common.

I cannot stress enough that I am not someone who usually breaks the rules, and I am definitely not on the side of removing all restrictions. But I am fed up of this government’s incompetence, lies and double standards. If they were to impose a 2/3 week lockdown I would obey it to the letter. But they are just going to drag this out through winter, as they did in spring. The government isn’t listening to the scientists, so why should I not apply my own common sense?

You need to be more creative in how you interact with people - there are loads of technologies to help, and you can still meet in parks, etc (Apart from tier 3).

To have sex? I'm fairly sure the law frowns on that.

@RichardMarxisinnocent Unfortunately my DP lives with his elderly parents (another reason we don’t go out beyond seeing each other), who have contact with other relatives, so the bubble doesn’t apply. I’m sure this is incredibly common.

But you live alone? So the support bubble does apply. Only one of the households has to be a single adult household, and once in the bubble you act as if you were one household. There are no rules saying members of the bubble can't have contact with others outside the bubble (well, as long as that contact is socially distanced and within the rules of the tier you are in). I am in a bubble with my DP and both of us have seen a small number of friends, socially distanced. Unless I have misunderstood the issue? Have his parents formed a bubble with a single adult household meaning that he can't form one with you?

@RichardMarxisinnocent Yes, his parents are in a bubble with another elderly family member, so I think that rules it out? I would be less concerned about going out and about if it wasn’t for his elderly relatives; we have been modifying our behaviour and activities significantly to protect them. Which is why I think this recent announcement has sent me over the edge.

It strange that some call for a circuit breaker full lock down when its obvious people cannot follow even soft guidelines

It's for the short term, at most a year in total.

Have you actually ever gone a year without human touch? If not, I would strongly suggest you do so and see how you've changed as a person. There are a few people who wouldn't be harmed by the experience. Most would be and some significantly so.

[quote Ypsilanti]@RichardMarxisinnocent Yes, his parents are in a bubble with another elderly family member, so I think that rules it out? I would be less concerned about going out and about if it wasn’t for his elderly relatives; we have been modifying our behaviour and activities significantly to protect them. Which is why I think this recent announcement has sent me over the edge.[/quote]
I understand, yes it does rule out you bubbling with their household. I really feel for you, March to May without seeing my DP at all, then May to mid June only outside at 2m was so tough for me. We had actually got to the point where if they hadn't introduced bubbles we were going to break the rules. If I were in your position I am pretty sure I would be breaking them now.

@Jaxhog

For crying out loud, anyone would think you were being asked to stay away from other people forever! It's for the short term, at most a year in total.

You need to be more creative in how you interact with people - there are loads of technologies to help, and you can still meet in parks, etc. (Apart from tier 3)

It isn't bollocks. It's the law and will save lives. Don't you care about anyone else?

Yeah, all you need is VR and a full-body haptic interface each. That or dogging. Can't see the problem

I expect this particular rule will be successfully challenged soon. It's unenforceable, cruel and stupid. Loads of people sticking to all the other rules will likely break this one and that's not great because once people willfully break one rule they're more likely to start questioning all the others.

That's why stupid rules are stupid.

@RationalOne

It strange that some call for a circuit breaker full lock down when its obvious people cannot follow even soft guidelines

Not really. The aim is to bring cases down and keep them low, not to have a load of rules just for the sake of it.

A circuit breaker lockdown would be very short term, would make a big difference to the number of infections and would give us a bit of breathing space to fix test and trace (I wouldn't support it unless it had that sort of a concrete aim).

This tier nonsense is set to continue indefinitely, and it's all sombrero flattening and no exit strategy. Been there, done that, here we are.

I live with my Fiance but if I didn't I would still see him as normal. That's very unreasonable and is risking loads more people having serious mental health issues.

Oh and I know that my bill will still see his girlfriend and I don't blame him. Its ridiculous.