Has Boris got the balls to cancel Xmas for London?

[Gobacktothe90s]

Obviously the answer is no, but the huge increase in cases in London should tell anyone it's not a good idea for Xmas mixing. How high will the rates go before he has to step in?

I think rather than cancel Xmas for the worst hit areas the only thing he would do is cancel Xmas mixing for everyone and do a complete u turn rather than single London out.
If however the North west still had high rates he would have no hesitation In stopping the north west mixing at Xmas but allowed other areas to mix.

Every decision we make carries risk and implications, it isn’t just Christmas. But the fact is that there will be a significant number of people who decide to meet this Christmas who will die as a direct result of that decision, especially older or more vulnerable people who have broadly kept to themselves but suddenly are indoors with teenagers and other family. I don’t know how the families will feel then, I expect them to say it was worth it since they know the risk ahead of time. Seems a madness when some would be vaccinated literally within two or three weeks of Xmas day.

Napqueen and Gremlins, another northerner here. Considering a while ago, 17 out of the top 20 worst affected areas were in the north and only Liverpool had the mass testing, I was disgusted to hear that they're going to roll out the testing in London and we get nothing. My town has had additional restrictions since mid August. I'd like to think that since the infection rates have dropped dramatically over the past few weeks, we may drop down a Tier next week, but it's incredibly frustrating to see the figures for certain London boroughs which are much higher than ours but we are still in Tier 3 whilst they are in Tier 2.

Of course there will also be many who survive but are never fully recovered, a friend who is a doctor has been advising me that many of the people who survive, especially older ones, are just not recovering well and struggling with ongoing illness. But again, many prefer that to delaying a meet up for a few weeks. Very odd choice to me, but if you have elderly relatives who don’t see it that way and are begging to meet as normal, I can totally see how hard it would be to say no. I am lucky that my older relatives are fairly sensible and stoical, if they weren’t I don’t know what I would do. It certainly wouldn’t be a normal level indoor mixing though.

If you don't have rules people make there own it's damage limitation .

people would just do as they want .

@IceCreamAndCandyfloss

I also hope there is a u-turn on the mixing. We need to try and avoid another wave and better to save the economy than letting people socialise. The single person bubble rule will means no one will have to be alone.

Agreed. It was a ridiculous and irresponsible idea in the first place.

@rwalker

If you don't have rules people make there own it's damage limitation .

people would just do as they want .

People are just doing what they want anyway.

I know so many families who are ignoring the current rules.

MN is full of people boasting about how they are bending the rules and I see it on my own street.

He can try and cancel Christmas for London but I will still be celebrating it with my friends like every year 😘

I think it will be Tier 3 from the end of next week, which will cancel all the bits of Christmas people are actually looking forward to

It's too late to cancel the family mixing, people are going to do it anyway.

@Napqueen1234 There are 32 London boroughs, 7 are getting mass testing in schools. Please explain why you are saying that virtually all London secondary schools are getting mass testing?

We won’t be seeing anyone. As many pp have said, we will take the responsibility the government seems unable to. MIL very sensibly said she wants to be here for more Christmas’s. So near to vaccines - it’s not worth the risk.
Hospitals beds will probably be limited in January - horrible decisions to make. What we do now has enormous implications.

Ilovelblue it's absolutely sickening, especially with how schools have been affected in the north yet our children aren't being offered testing! Only London counts, it seems.

Anyone in any tier can do the 3 bubble thing over the xmas.days??????

Genuine question. If you are tier three then does the 3 house hold apply for the Christmas week?

@TheGremlinsarecoming , I read that he said all tier 3 places said they can apply for testing ? I wonder if any have.? If so why haven't they got it first or will he move some of them down a tier of cases are falling

Nope, no chance. He absolutely should but he won’t. My ICU is full so we’ve opened another one. No extra staff of course, feels like it did back in March except everyone is going out for dinner and shopping. Dreading the next few months

I'm in tier 3 and I'm not even sure what the mixing rules are for us over Christmas. My DM won't let us near her, (not even in the garden when we were allowed over summer which was heartbreaking for the DC), so it'll be me and my younger DCs, my eldest ones will be back home, and my exh.

@timeforanewstart I can only think because our cases are falling we've dropped down the list for testing, but it doesn't explain why we're still stuck in tier 3!

People should decide for themselves they know the risks, it’s not up to the government to dictate how they want to celebrate and the potential consequences.

@TheGremlinsAreComing aren't tiers being reviewed next week

@TheGremlinsAreComing

Ilovelblue it's absolutely sickening, especially with how schools have been affected in the north yet our children aren't being offered testing! Only London counts, it seems.

I live in London, my child is not being offered testing. It’s in 7 of the 32 boroughs - hardly everyone in London, in fact not even close.

timeforanewstart apparently so. I don't have a large friend group or want to go to pubs/restaurants etc, but I have family in hospitality and I'd really like them to have some kind of income again before Christmas.

It would also be quite nice (but obviously not essential) to be able to take the kids into a coffee shop and sit inside with a hot chocolate rather than us standing around in the rain. It's not a big deal I suppose but lockdown up north has been brutally long! Tier 2 would be nice for a bit.

Napqueen1234. - saying all London hospitals are vaccine hubs is simply not true: there is only one hospital north of the river currently a vaccine hub and that's the Royal Free in NW London. Nothing yet in the East, the worst hit area. There are plenty of areas not yet covered because the vaccine is in relatively short supply.

[quote BunsyGirl]@Napqueen1234 There are 32 London boroughs, 7 are getting mass testing in schools. Please explain why you are saying that virtually all London secondary schools are getting mass testing?[/quote]
Theres 7 boroughs with high numbers. So what about the Northern areas with similar numbers?

Whatever the public do it will never be good enough.