Month long lockdown to 'pay' for 5 days over Christmas

[NotAKaren]

PHE have confirmed Sage advice that for every one day of relaxation over Christmas would require 5 days of restrictions afterwards. So for 5 days relaxation, which is rumoured to be what the government have in mind, would mean 25 days of restrictions. Is it really worth it?

@Augustbreeze

Apparently the female NHS head of something "misspoke" this morning when she said two days for every five.....

You mean she forgot what the latest story was . No faith in any member of SAGE or PHE any more.

No! I don't want to spend my Xmas with PIL anyway and now it would be 25 extra days of restrictions. Tier 3 everywhere is perfectly fine for me.

It's not worth it, but I suspect a lot of people would flout the rules anyway if they put any in place at Christmas. So, I suspect another lockdown in the new year will be inevitable regardless.

It depends what the restrictions are. We will be in strict restrictions when lockdown ends anyway. I can’t see many places being in Tier 1.

No not worth it. But people will mix regardless of whether it is allowed or not, almost everyone I know have already said that they'll be mixing with other households at Christmas no matter what. Maybe they think this way more people will stick to just the 5 days rather than giving up entirely?

People are going to want to mix over New Years too. 24-26 December and 31 Dec/1 Jan makes more sense

No, definitely not

Hell no. But a lockdown in January was always going to happen.

No. Its just Christmas and its just one year.

It's ridiculous.
If they did this I would really feel for those who have no family to see over Christmas!!
And what about those who don't celebrate Christmas? Were they given the same consideration for Diwali or Eid?

Madness

@bathsh3ba

They were saying two days for every day of relaxation earlier today. Do they just make up the figures?!

They released a statement saying that the PHE person 'misspoke' and it was actually 5 days.

When the schools close I'm going to be fuming at the selfish people who just couldn't spend one Christmas in their bubble.

Children have missed out on so much education already and those without access to home learning will never recover. It's just so unfair that people can be so nasty and uncaring.

But if we don’t relax over Christmas then we are still in the restrictions. So what’s the difference?
Personally I would be happy with restaurants and bars being allowed to open and limiting households mixing indoors still.

Absolutely not its just ridiculous Its one friggin day for gods sake

As far as I’m concerned this is all propaganda to achieve 2 things;

1. They want to keep running lockdowns into 2021 anyway but know this will be very unpopular and probably ignored by too large a percentage of the population. They also know that lots of families haven’t seen each other for many months, have lockdown fatigue and are desperately hoping to spend some quality, worry free time together at Christmas. By leaking this information today, they are effectively offering the general public a deal - 5 days off in return for 25 days lockdown (you naughty general public)!

1. Related to the above, it is also to manage expectations for the start of next year. The end of 2020 will be happily waved goodbye by most people and psychologically the start of a new year is significant. Of course people don’t think the virus will disappear at the stroke of midnight but they will be looking forward to a new year and to seeing the end of all the restrictions. I don’t think that’s going to be the case sadly and the government still wish to control us all through to spring at least.

The problem with this “deal” is that it’s being sold as something that’s perhaps maybe not worth it. However be mindful of the fact that none of them have said that a restricted Christmas without the 5 days doesn’t mean that there won’t still be restrictions in 2021!

It’s a win win for the government anyway. We ask for the 5 days and they get to implement their next lockdown guilt free as that’s the deal we took. We don’t take the deal but enough Brits break the rules anyway because it’s Christmas and that is the time for family and they will still run a lockdown anyway and blame it on the rule breakers.

Of course through none of this has it been accepted that since 99% of people survive covid, it’s really the government alone who are at fault for our hospitals failing to cope with an additional, but mostly standard winter respiratory illness, as if they had properly staffed and funded hospitals then we could all be living as normal.

I don’t think you can compare to Diwali or Eid. At the end of the day we are a predominantly Christian/secular country and most of the population celebrates Christmas ( religious or not) ! Our calendar is based around it. It’s totally different!

I think it's a disgusting idea. Makes everyone suffer even more with stricter lockdowns just for a few sodding days at Christmas. Even more disgusting after other religious festivals were completely ignored too.

Why is it only people wanting a normal Christmas that matters? What about the way students and young people and all the social sacrifices they have had to make? All the businesses being destroyed, people unable to spend time with elderly family in care homes?

Got to laugh at the stupidity of it all too, the same people who want to shout about how selfish rule breakers are will probably be delighted if Boris says they're allowed to have Christmas dinner with their Nan, as though as long as it's allowed within the rules it's all ok and the risk has gone. Critical thinking has completely disappeared in this pandemic.

I'd take it. I've not seen my family all year and now i have a family member who is really sick. I'd take the restriction to be wiyh thrm while they are ill. It's not thrir fault when they get ill.

I would have had no resyrictions when they were ill in July but another relative stayed.

No it’s not worth a full relaxation & anyway it would be unfair to those who have had to celebrate Diwali etc in lockdown ... However permitting 2 households/bubbles to join would help numerous people & prevent people being alone over the 4 day bank holiday - my friend has a sibling with a young child, who is bubbled with her parents to enable childcare/support. As such my friend (single) is not able to see either & is likely to have to spend Christmas alone. Another friend lives with her husband & only his (elderly) parents are still around - they can’t currently visit & there will be a lot of elderly couples on their own who really could benefit from seeing one of their children’s families in a situation like this ...

I think it's totally not worth it, especially with the numbers where I live.
I certainly don't want to risk spreading it to my family and friends anyway, so we will be staying at home and not seeing anyone.

And so far as the psychology goes, will some people think "I didn't mix at Christmas so now I am "owed" 5 days of ignoring restrictions at some other point?
5 days is far too long imo, but are they doing that to stagger the traffic maybe? They don't want people to use public transport.
I don't fancy sitting on a gridlocked motorway for Christmas either.

If people meet up with different friends every day for 5 days, that's a lot of close contacts.

@Lostinacloud I agree, I think there is a lot of softening up going on here to change people's expectations.

I'd rather spend Christmas with those I love next year.
Some of those won't be with us next year due to such ridiculousness this Christmas.

Not worth it, even if like us in Greater Manchester you've only had ELEVEN days without restrictions since March 23rd. Most people don't go near a church at Christmas; for many it's just an excuse for excess consumption. And, while we're all missing family and friends, at least we've got the technology to keep in touch. I'm not diminishing the pain of separation in extreme circumstances either; I've had several bereavements this year and I know first hand how hard it is to not be able to see someone or comfort them.

The talk of mixing 3/4 households being ok for 5 days, if true, sounds like it will lead to total carnage.

People will get together indoors in repeated different large groups every day for 5 weeks with people that they haven’t seen together since March... and get sloshed.

January will be fun .

No. With 2 children at school and a DH in a key worker role, I wouldn't be comfortable having our elderly relatives over for Christmas even if it was allowed. I would desperately love my mum to be here but I love her too much to risk her health. It's not going to be safer to see her on Christmas day than any other day. Viruses don't work like that!

Extra lockdown for other people to take risks doesn't make sense to me. I presume the lockdown needed would be to bring back down the numbers after all the extra infections caught at Christmas. How awful is that.