Brief history is, DP's parent was diagnosed with terminal cancer last year. They have been in and out of hospital (ironically, after many months shielding, they caught COVID in hospital, somehow managed to recover after a day or two). There is almost no way they will live beyond a few months.
We had planned to visit them over Christmas, so DP could spend one last Christmas with both his parents. Of course we understand there is a non-zero chance we have COVID as is the case with anybody, but that chance is very, very close to zero. Both WFH, live in an area with very few COVID cases, haven't been seeing people since March, been isolating for two weeks with no food shop, deliveries etc. coming to the house. We would drive to his parents' house.
Due to various reasons DP has only seen them once since the diagnosis, and only briefly at that. Lockdowns after Christmas seem likely so who knows when we might see them again. Parents live across the border from England, it is 5 hours each way so no way to blag it as a day trip on Christmas Day. If we were stopped by police I would try to explain we were visiting a terminally ill person using the "compassionate grounds" thing. To be honest I would pay £100, £1000 up front if it meant they'd let DP see his parent, I am so upset to think of them passing without seeing their son again.
On the other hand we do see the need for the rules and have been following everything to the letter since March - I really, really hate breaking rules and especially this lockdown because I completely understand how we might have chaos in Jan. My instinct is to go - I saw a similar thread earlier today and everybody was telling the OP to visit so I guess what I need is some validation that I'm being pathetic and yes we should just go and stay with his parents as planned, or else a telling off for considering it!
Phew, if you made it to the end of that, thanks for reading.