Christmas rule breaking and policing

[BuffaloCauliflower]

This isn’t a debate about what rules there should be or not be at Christmas, and whether or not people should or shouldn’t break them, but let’s assume that it’s likely we’ll be back to some form of ‘the rule of 6’ for Christmas, maybe not including children in the number, maybe it’ll be 8 instead of 6, who knows, but its unlikely to be the normal course of events.

In practice, many people will break these rules to at least some extent, and is there really any chance of it being policed anyway? The police literally won’t have the resources to go and check all the houses that may have too many people in them and it would be a waste of their time And resources anyway when I’m sure they’ll be needed more elsewhere. Perhaps if there’s a massive party somewhere it might be worth it. But ultimately there will be no policing of the rules so it’ll be up to each person/household what they choose to do anyway surely?

@Hercwasonaroll exactly! Some people don’t want to live their last years in isolation not seeing their families

It IS the Government

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/04/tory-linked-firm-involved-in-testing-failure-awarded-new-347m-covid-contract

@IceCreamAndCandyfloss

I’m dreading January. So many simply won’t comply and will do what they want and cases will be awful. People wont think of the impact on the NHS, schools and others and will likely be the first to moan when they can’t get treated for something non Covid or schools close.

Not sure how to enforce, maybe larger fines and the person reporting gets part of it? Army help?

You must be unhinged

It IS the Government

Government ordered testing kits from China that had to be recalled due to them not being sterile.

Meanwhile mass gatherings and parties take place in all parts of the country spreading a deadly virus.

So we have a poster advocating sending in the army to break up peaceful family celebrations. That is one mindblowing suggestion there. 😱

I expect the poster in question would welcome those Chinese welders with open arms too.

Wooooow share of the fine to dob in your neighbours, or have the army check how many people in your house. Incredible.

I agree with the poster above that it takes the piss to relax restrictions for Christmas when we didn't do the same for everyone else's important religious celebrations. Tone deaf government as usual.

@PinkFondantFancy they weren’t relaxed for Easter which for Christians is the most important religious festival

No true, and I still can't go to church, so that's irritating. But you can't deny that Christmas trumping all other celebrations such as jewish new year is pretty off.

It’s not just one day though is it? We’ve been separated from family for months now. Those who live very close to family are lucky to be able to see them over summer but the rest of us haven’t had that. It’s my DC first Christmas, we’ve followed all the rules all year, not gone on holiday, given up so much. But I’m not giving up Christmas Day. We will be seeing family and I will happily pay the fine if caught. Maybe those who went out eating in restaurants every week, going on holidays and seeing people non-social distanced etc. should stay home at Christmas and those of us who were sensible should be allowed to see others (I know this wouldn’t work in practice but I would love it to happen).

I've followed the rules pretty strictly, am vulnerable and my parents are ecv, we dont live near each other. It's just me and dp, I'd hope that I can go and stay with my parents and dp can visit his, theres lots of talk about people just staying in their own little family with kids but we dont have that (not by choice) and xmas is hard enough as it is. Most of my friends have a couple of kids and childcare bubbles so have been able to see (even if fairly briefly) family a lot even whilst we've been in tier 3.

@PinkFondantFancy I don’t agree. Christmas is celebrated by a far far higher proportion of the country than any other religions festivals, even people who are of other faiths or no faith celebrate Christmas in some way. Whereas other religions make up less than 10% of the population. Restrictions on Christmas are of far greater impact at a population level than restrictions over any other religious festival

@Racoonworld I’m with you there.

Christmas isn’t just a religious festival, it’s a cultural one that’s celebrated extremely widely in the U.K. it gets a whole holiday period to itself, special tv schedules, huge retail drives, address from the Queen, etc, etc.

Yeah @BluebellsGreenbells im sure giving Track and Trace to their mates isnt the Governments fault at all. People are getting fed up of having to lock down because of their failure and wish to make profit