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.”

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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?

Peppa but it is that work which pays for the heating in hospitals via tax, which pays the salaries of nurses, teachers and doctors. More would die if we tightened the measures and more lives would be destroyed.

LastTrainEast - I shall continue to go to M&S Foodhall with DH and to Starbucks as is legally allowed. If you don’t like it you can rant at me but your opinion has no impact on my actions.

@howitworks

Our Boots is packed with people browsing the makeup and skincare section and the gift sets in the sales.

You'd never know there's a lockdown here and we're one of the worst affected areaas.

Do you work there or are you one of them?

My city centre was quite busy yesterday afternoon, like how busy it used to be around 10am on a weekday, pre-Covid.

@Funkypolar

LastTrainEast - I shall continue to go to M&S Foodhall with DH and to Starbucks as is legally allowed. If you don’t like it you can rant at me but your opinion has no impact on my actions.

Genuine question - why are you insisting on shopping with your bloke when it’s been specifically asked that we don’t do it? We haven’t been into a shop as a couple for ten months, it’s not difficult. Just because M&S isn’t enforcing the guidance doesn’t give you carte blanche to defy it.

@Sitt

I also don’t understand the few posts I have seen saying “why is everyone obsessed with takeaway coffee”

People obviously aren’t obsessed, but they are taking advantage of the small luxuries and pleasures that are allowed and available, especially when all socialising has to happen in the cold weather.

So true about the small pleasures. No Costa coffee shops here, but when the local co-op re-opened their costa express machine I made my partner pick me one up while he was there. It may have been cold by the time I got it, but it was the best cup of coffee I had had in months and made my day.

Xenia the same could be said of any industry that has been deemed to close . The point i was making here in Scotland people can’t see how the new variant is spreading as fast as it is. When the Scottish Gov is asking everyone to stay at home. But allows train loads of Londers from the highest areas of the new strain to travel here spreading it freely and it’s all perfectly legal. Yet someone else would get a fine for driving into a new council area 2 miles down the road. I’m not talking about essential work here.

VinylDetective - we don’t have a car so walked down together. One person cannot carry all the shopping and I’m pregnant. Not that I need to justify myself.

@southeastdweller

My city centre was quite busy yesterday afternoon, like how busy it used to be around 10am on a weekday, pre-Covid.

Presumably you were there adding to that busyness?

Presumably you were there adding to that busyness?

That’s right.

@Funkypolar

VinylDetective - we don’t have a car so walked down together. One person cannot carry all the shopping and I’m pregnant. Not that I need to justify myself.

Of course you don’t have to justify yourself but just one of you could have actually gone into the shop.

I did our weekly shop yesterday and it was definitely couples shopping together that made it particularly stressful for those of us shopping alone. Especially the one where the fuckwit of a husband insisted on standing in the middle of the aisle to chat with a mate he bumped into.

VinylDetective - we shall have to agree to disagree or something.

@Seeline

People are abusing the bubble system. Either intentionally or through ignorance.

Some people are regularly travelling significant distances to be with their support bubbles which must help with the spread.

My elderly widowed mother lives 90 minutes from us. We have been her support bubble since allowed. She has no other family in this country. I visit once a month to ensure she is OK, take food etc. I am complying with every rule, haven't been in a supermarket for months, I really don't think I'm.spreading the virus.

I think for every one justified car journey , shopping trip, meet up etc , there are probably ten unjustified ones . (Numbers made up but you get the gist)

People bend the rules on the ‘bubbles’. My friend is in a bubble with her son and his family. They are all home, one works from home and the other is a SAHP so really not eligible for a bubble. I imagine this is happening everywhere.

I’ve seen posts re people using bubbles as a way to continue dating and meeting new people so they definitely aren’t being used as support on all cases but as a means to carry on as before.

Yes, sounds harsh but maybe time to just be black and white about it all. No bubbles, no mixing, nada.

A complete ban on all mixing of households will mean social services won't cope.

“Sounds harsh”

Sounds cruel more like

So easy for those who don’t need support bubbles to casually say they should be banned

@Sockwomble

A complete ban on all mixing of households will mean social services won't cope.

This.

Shocking many are advocating the removal of support bubbles... despite several in this post (and others on MN) that removal of bubbles would mean a drastic decline in mental health that would put more strain on the NHS (and result in very preventable deaths too).

Yes, there are people that are taking the piss with bubbles... and they will still continue to do so if they are removed. All removing them will do is hurt the very people who are abiding by the rules and relying on them.

@Sockwomble

A complete ban on all mixing of households will mean social services won't cope.

There were no bubbles in the first lockdown so they could restrict again with a few caveats like caring duties.

The less mixing the better. We have so much technology to keep in touch by and pretty much everyone has a house phone and millions with mobiles, internet, tablets etc.

Yes, my DF is a driving instructor. This is the third time he has had to stop working

Yes, one of my friends is a driving instructor and also teaching my son. My son was meant to have his test on Tuesday. Oh well. Hopefully he will be able to pass his test before the theory runs out...

In the first lockdown they allowed keyworkers to take tests. I don't know why they've stopped it this time around, they could have used the original definition of key worker.

Had a water leak and needed an emergency dash to B&Q. The cashier said I was the first person she had served with essential items only

And how is she qualified to judge what is "essential". Dear god we had this with Boots and then the supermarkets and now we have cashiers in B&Q policing their customers' trolleys. If the shop is open, it's open.

The rate of covid transmissions will be far higher from workplaces and childcare and hospitals than support bubbles.
In the first 3, multiple individuals from multiple households mix. In support bubbles there are only 2 fixed unchangeable households (one of which is a single adult) - that is one of the lowest risk levels of household mixing. Support bubbles should not be removed before non-essential workplaces (including all hospitality).

Why should someone be able to leave their house for a coffee/muffin/sandwich while another person stays at home isolated without a single permitted contact?

I really hope the government make the right decision now. Support bubbles (like outside exercising) are easy hits, but won't achieve anything meaningful in terms of virus transmission, they will only hurt other human being's mental and physical health.

My ex with whom I share two dc lives with his gf and they have a single friend in their support bubble, plus the grandfather of our dc, plus the grandmother of the gf's dc, then there's the grandad's gf providing childcare and the single friend sees their mum and sister. I'm CEV and have had to stop the dc going there as my doctor has said it's too risky. They are taking the piss so that they can carry on as normal with their lives. I'm a single parent of 3 and I'm a bubble with my widowed mum and neither of us see anyone else at all outside of our bubble. That's how I understand bubbles to work.