Further Restrictions 'Stricter than March' Needed

[Bewareoftheblob]

From the Telegraph today:

Sage advisers are calling for a lockdown tougher than the one seen in March as they argue the current restrictions do not go far enough.

Professor Susan Michie, a health psychology professor at University College London who sits on a Sage subcommittee, said more stringent action was needed.

While around 90 per cent of Britons are sticking to the rules there are also "more people out and about”, Prof Michie told the Today programme.

"It should definitely be tightened,” she said. "This is quite a lax lockdown because we’ve still got a lot of household contact, people go in and out of other’s houses. We should have stricter rather than a less strict lockdown than we had in March.

“You have this wide definition of critical workers and therefore you’ve got really busy public transport. There's also this new variant, and we have the winter season and the virus survives for longer in the cold.”

Link

Do you think they'll follow through with this? Reduce the amount of children in schools, ban support bubbles, heavier policing of people going about their daily lives?

I agree that the government needs to crack down on employers not using working from home. I work in the civil service. I am a keyworker / critical worker. 90% of my job can be done from home. Last lockdown we were wfh.

This lockdown we are physically in a couple of times a week and work are ploughing ahead with plans to have us in up to 4 days a week from mid-Jan.

Crazy.

Unions sent out comms last night to say they'd had high level national talks which confirmed that the 90% of our job that can be done at home should be and the 10% only for essential in person work, but that's not what we're currently being told to do regionally.

Only three of us in our team have school age kids and so far I think only one has them in school, but you can imagine the knock on effect on schools.

I agree get masks on everyone where possible in schools, nurseries, hubs.

In Tesco this morning, you certainly wouldn’t think there was a lockdown. No social distancing, people getting impatient waiting to get into different isles, so people just pushing in. Whole families in, one parent could wait in the car so the shopping could get done. It doesn't take 6 of a family to shop. Driving past home bargains. It was just like a normal busy Saturday. Teenagers walking about in groups. I’m in Scotland so it’s supposed to be full lockdown.

@OnlyTeaForMe

I know it's controversial, but I think places of worship should also close - they are enclosed spaces full of people for quite long periods of time.

We have had our church shut since March and didn't reopen in the summer. Our leadership team looked at the regulations and decided that it was not worth the risk to reopen, given the limitations it brought. So we've stayed with Zoom church, Zoom homegroup, Zoom carol service, etc. The only time the church has opened was when they were issuing Christmas hampers to people who might benefit. But then they gave each person a collection slot, so they didn't have large numbers in the building.

It would send a powerful message to the country if the UK parliaments started working online, or at the very least wore masks when not talking.

But no, no restrictions on their working lives as they are very busy and important don't you know - unlike the rest of us plebs.

They clearly aren't taking it seriously despite their impassioned soap box pleas, so why should the rest of us ?

@Againstmachine

And everyone should wear masks outside their own homes even if visiting someone in a support bubble (unless medically it’s not possible)

So on my walk to work where is see no one at 6am in morning I should be wearing a mask.

Masks outside I will not comply with.

Well, yes, mask-wearing should have been made mandatory when out of the home and enforced ever since this thing started. OR, perhaps make mask-wearing mandatory between the hours of, say, 7am-10pm. Of course, walking to work with no one around at 6am, you aren't going to get covid. However, the more people see others wear masks, the more they are likely to do so themselves and, when it comes to maskwearing, the govt should not make exceptions (except of course for disabilities.)

Evidence shows that in a normal flu year, flu infections actually drop over Christmas.

This is because the meeting up of adults at Xmas is offset by the much bigger effect of a lack of school mixing when the kids aren't in school.

@andweallsingalong

I agree that the government needs to crack down on employers not using working from home. I work in the civil service. I am a keyworker / critical worker. 90% of my job can be done from home. Last lockdown we were wfh.

This lockdown we are physically in a couple of times a week and work are ploughing ahead with plans to have us in up to 4 days a week from mid-Jan.

Crazy.

Unions sent out comms last night to say they'd had high level national talks which confirmed that the 90% of our job that can be done at home should be and the 10% only for essential in person work, but that's not what we're currently being told to do regionally.

Only three of us in our team have school age kids and so far I think only one has them in school, but you can imagine the knock on effect on schools.

Completely agree. It's fucking nuts!

It would seem to me that masks haven’t proved a roaring success

@rookiemere

It would send a powerful message to the country if the UK parliaments started working online, or at the very least wore masks when not talking.

But no, no restrictions on their working lives as they are very busy and important don't you know - unlike the rest of us plebs.

They clearly aren't taking it seriously despite their impassioned soap box pleas, so why should the rest of us ?

Absolutely. But this current Parliament have been shit for setting the example for the populace to follow. Assholes!

I think most people juggling childcare and working from home want a stricter lockdown to reduce the length of time it has to go on for. It seems really unfair that it’s the minority of people making the sacrifice.

@VenusTiger

A psychologist (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) calls for tighter restrictions - I can't believe what has happened to this farse of a country.

why the outrage?

Well, yes, mask-wearing should have been made mandatory when out of the home and enforced ever since this thing started. OR, perhaps make mask-wearing mandatory between the hours of, say, 7am-10pm.

If I go for a walk and there's no one else around I won't be wearing a mask, what's the point?

100 % compliance on masks, no mask no entry and employers made to let people work from home not find loopholes to make them come in.

@WouldBeGood

It would seem to me that masks haven’t proved a roaring success

That's because there is not enough uptake, inconsistency (schools), and the lack of mandate and enforcement has been poor in the UK. Also, masks work in conjunction with other factors: social distancing and handwashing. These messages seem to be getting lost and need to be reinforced, strictly.

@Lifeisabeach09 I'm including the Scottish government in this as that's where I live. It's particularly annoying to see the wee MPs maskless in their jolly old parliament as unlike Boris, Nicola does appear to be so sincere about it all, but unable to see what's visible right in front of her.

Also as the politicians lives have not been impacted as much as ours, they can't truly understand how rubbish it is not to physically interact with your colleagues and have no separation between work and home.

@Lifeisabeach09 I agree. It’s about the message being clear and about normalising mask wearing. When people were told to wear masks in shops people felt embarrassed etc etc now the majority of people do it without thinking. It’s about normalising these new safety measures. There’s too many mixed messages across the board

@Lifeisabeach09 mask compliance is very high where I live and big rates

And mask wearing is not and never should be normal.

@Persianparadise

In Tesco this morning, you certainly wouldn’t think there was a lockdown. No social distancing, people getting impatient waiting to get into different isles, so people just pushing in. Whole families in, one parent could wait in the car so the shopping could get done. It doesn't take 6 of a family to shop. Driving past home bargains. It was just like a normal busy Saturday. Teenagers walking about in groups. I’m in Scotland so it’s supposed to be full lockdown.

The family groups trying to decide which bloody cake to buy drive me nuts. Three women with two children using one trolley in our local Aldi. I'm an 'older' person, and I shop on my own, but I see couples similar to DH and I who don't seem able to buy a bag of spuds without consulting each other. We have a small local greengrocer, a limit of three shoppers at a time, two are nearly always a couple! One could easily wait outside. Drives me nuts.

I think more people are complying now. During the first lockdown where I live people was in and out each other's flats daily, downstairs having picnics etc and just doing what they wanted.
This time people aren't doing that, maybe the weather is playing a part but I doubt it. It seems to be working round here atm I'm in Greater London.

I agree get masks on everyone where possible in schools, nurseries, hubs

You seriously think young children in nurseries will wear masks?

They won’t make mask wearing outside law.

This virus isn’t spreading from people outside not wearing masks. They should still be 2 metres apart anyway. Let’s be honest, we have to wear masks indoors everywhere anyway so they’re hardly great advocates of protection control. If masks were that good, the numbers wouldn’t be sky high....

@PinkSparklyPussyCat

Well, yes, mask-wearing should have been made mandatory when out of the home and enforced ever since this thing started. OR, perhaps make mask-wearing mandatory between the hours of, say, 7am-10pm.

If I go for a walk and there's no one else around I won't be wearing a mask, what's the point?

Not having one rule for one person and a different rule for another.

Hypothetically, If it's mandatory to wear a mask outside and a person chooses not to wear one, why should anyone else?

Seriously?? 90% of the population are complying? Not sure how or where they got that figure from, but round here I’m in the minority with following restrictions. Sick of people moaning about their life’s being on hold, whilst breaking rule after rule. People might not agree with the restrictions, but fgs just follow the bloody rules and lets get this crap over with.