Mass evacuation of London

[madcatladyforever]

just seen yesterdays videos of the mass evacuation of people from London to go and spend christmas elsewhere before it's too late.
Well done Londeners thanks for spreading the virus mutation ALL OVER THE COUNTRY.
Now waiting for tier 4 all over the country in the new year.
Because your christmas is so much more important than anybody elses health.
This is how it all started, no action in Wuhan, a few days later it's been flown all over the world, fantastic.
Mark my words the new year will be hell.

@TheSultanofPingu

I think a thread along the same lines has just been deleted. Can we please stop with all this division. Things are miserable enough as it is!

Yeah it did because people were blaming us that are in tier 4 and saying it’s karma and it’s what we deserve. The last shopping weekend before Xmas London was going to be busy. Please don’t just assume and think the worse of people.

an important word! Jesus my phone doesn't even recognise my typing anymore

Londoner here.

Mass evacuation? what nonsense...stations always get packed during rush hour.

Where on earth do you think was Londoners would go anyway? refugee camps in Cornwall? tents in the centre of Manchester?
Not everyone has as a second home and the people you saw on trains are not necessarily people who usually live in London, many still commute for work or might have come to Christmas shop for the day and were returning home.

Stop believing what the Daily Mail prints...

"I travelled from London yesterday.
Do you know why? I don’t fucking live there!"

"My DD came home last night, but she would have come home on 23 anyway, she just came home early "

See these are examples of people travelling. Not Londoners on a random jolly!

Most people that left London, are people that are returning home, to the North, midlands etc, so are in fact not Londoners.

Londoner here.

I know two people who left London after the announcement yesterday

One was because she had already given up the lease on her flat and was planning to move on 21st December. She would be homeless in London if she did not go two days early. Moving houses was allowed even in the first most significant lockdown.

The second left early to her grandmother as the grandmother's carers are not working over Christmas. If she did not get there before the rules changed, the grandmother would potentially have no carers over Christmas. Going to a vulnerable person to provide care was allowed even in the first most significant lockdown.

In a city this size, there will be stories like that. There will also be some who panic and some who are selfish. I actually suspect both of them could have travelled after midnight and still been legal, but it was not entirely clear.

I have also heard (from friends who work in the industry) that as many hotels will now close, people who were accommodated in hotels were having to revise their plans. I don't know what the answer is there but I don't think it is the individual's fault to want to get somewhere they know they will have a bed.

The real scandal is not people having to make these individual decisions in haste, it is how the tiers / Christmas / track & trace, etc, etc, has been implemented.

It's not Dunkirk in 1940 FFS

As if this strain was actually going to be contained to just London , the walled City 🤣

Well done Londoners

D'uh! 🤣🤣🤣

Hilarious. Do you think we're all fleeing to the streets of The North to what, wander? Its the weekend before Christmas, most of the travel will have been booked well in advance as you can't just jump on to Manchester at short notice any more!

If you're concerned about Londoners fleeing to you, get your pitchforks out and block the entrances, they're only coming to people who've invited them where you are!

Those travellers fall into three categories:

1. People returning home from trips to London. It was one of the busiest shopping weekends etc. Central London was full yesterday and last week with UK tourists.

1. People travelling to their northern families. Look how young most of them are, they will be students and (many single) people heading back to their parents. If interviewed they would say they're northerners! I was practically trampled by a huge gang of Liverpudlian girls on Friday near Euston, all clearly just in town shopping for the day.

1. People travelling a few stops up the road, or a few miles, still within tier 4 areas.

People heading to second homes won't be doing it by train, and the roads were not busy. Second home people will mainly have left on Tuesday before tier 3, like the truly wealthy who have been flying out to Dubai, Maldives and the Caribbean for most of the past week!

If you want evidence as stringent as those DM articles, the only person I know who has left is my colleague, who as a lone household can legally leave to join her support bubble parents in York. She booked her tickets ages ago and isn't breaking any rules. Otherwise my large, born and bred Londoner circle of friends and family are all, surprise, surprise, staying in London!

If you were a Londoner where would you be going? It's clearly going to be people from outside going home for Christmas. Not saying it's the right thing. I'm so glad I'm not in that situation. If it was two years ago I'd be stuck in a moldy London bedroom celebrating Christmas on my own.

It wasn't a mass evacuation and the north had worse statistics than London until recently. London isn't full of evil. Some people are idiots (OP).

There was actually a much larger number of people living London yesterday than 'a typical Friday night.'

Several train services were fully sold out (s ee reports on reputable news sites like BBC & guardian).

I think a lot of this will be young people working in the hospitality industry whose employers will have been forced to close and want to get back to their families where they had always arranged to spend Xmas while they can.

As they should be able to.

Really pisses me off this second home owning, rich bastard stereotype of all Londoners just waiting to foist their germs on other parts of the country. We've had this throughout the pandemic. The only person I know with a second home in the north has cancelled their planned holiday up north because they're following the rules. Everyone else is staying at home and doesn't own a second home.

I didn't see one thread when it was bad in the north from Londoners saying don't come down here and spread your smelly germs. Just stop it. We're struggling down here too. My MiL is now having Christmas on her own, despite being in a local bubble because she is scared witless by BJ. It's tough for all of us and these threads don't help at all.

leaving not living

Don't blame ordinary people who have been told one thing, then another with almost no time to reorganise themselves. Government policy is at fault here, not the poor individuals forced to change travel plans at the eleventh hour.

The new strain WILL spread outside of London, it already has. The whole country should be in lockdown. They have known about this for WEEKS!! they knew and yet still allowed people to make plans for Christmas.

Also can somebody please tell me why i am expected to go to work where socially distancing is virtually impossible, my Dp can still continue to visit multiple households every day, often with vulnerable people. But i cannot, following the death of my mum on Thursday, have my mentally vulnerable daughter visit on Christmas day?? Can somebody please find the humanity in that

I don’t think this thread should be deleted. We need to stop pretending this Covid only happens to other people.

Yeah your family is alright, they have been isolating but what about the poor fucker sitting next to you who is coming back from work to a highly vulnerable family member???

People are dying of this virus all around, if we were not so stiff lipped about things and kept quiet about how our families and neighbours are affected (to protect their privacy, obvs...) we would be more aware of how extended the virus is, how lethal it can be and that we are just doing marginally better than US, a country we highly criticise as irresponsible and selfish.

So yes, I don’t care if your baby has not seen grandma or you feel alone on Christmas (being there, done that..) what I care is about all that people who are going to die because you thought your transient feelings were more important than their lives.

@UntamedWisteria

There was actually a much larger number of people living London yesterday than 'a typical Friday night.'

Several train services were fully sold out (s ee reports on reputable news sites like BBC & guardian).

I think a lot of this will be young people working in the hospitality industry whose employers will have been forced to close and want to get back to their families where they had always arranged to spend Xmas while they can.

As they should be able to.

And University students who are allowed to go home.

In the Daily Fail photos, the travellers were nearly all student aged.

It's so easy to create division and make us hate each other when essentially 99% of us are in the same boat and totally screwed.

You do realise that the people leaving London aren’t “Londoners”

'Mark my words the new year will be hell'

Where have you been since March?

Wonder if OP will answer these reasonable points.

They have known about this for WEEKS!! they knew and yet still allowed people to make plans for Christmas.

Part of me thinks if they said in Nov there will be no Christmas people just wouldn't have shopped & spent so much.

OP been back at all? No?

Surprise surprise.

Don't rise to this shit and idiots wont keep lighting the touch paper.