What is considered a picnic?

[xatcat]

Does it mean you can't walk and eat something outside?

Or is it when your sat down outside eating?

Just trying to clarify the rules.

Dolly wilde, that's dreadful. In lockdown 2 they were quite clear you could sit on benches, so I thought we were past this nonsense. It's also discrimination against disabled people. There's a woman in my local park who I often see walking with a frame and then resting on a bench. If they were to tape ours off I imagine she'd struggle to be exercise in a way that is right for her.

Is anyone else (no matter where and depending on where you are for differing reasons) having trouble even remembering ‘lockdown 2’ or what it was all about ??? With all of the tier chaos and U turns and changes that period (nov??) just feels a blur of inconsistencies and confusions. This feels to me like second lockdown.

At least two pork pies, definitely couple of sandwiches, got to have a rug

whittiestitties that would surely be a ‘substantial picnic’ which may lead us into further debates and exclusions/inclusions etc. Careful !

I don't like pork pies - are they mandatory ? I'm in Scotland though so it's probably a haggis bridie or some other revolting snack instead we'll be forced to eat.

hmm thinks: isn't there a law about breast feeding ?isn't about it being illegal to stop or hinder someone from doing it in public?
So - if someone sits down to feed baby & police stop you - as long as you are keeping social distance - ditto disability & seating?
Slightly off point - are public loos in parks etc still open - if not that IS a major issue for many people (outs self)

@HOS8595

Some people are batshit. Questioning the OP for eating a fucking banana!!! What the fuck has the world come too😂😂

Sit on as many benches at you want op and eat as many bananas as you want. A banana isn’t a picnic. It’s actually laughable the people on these boards.

I agree with this . It is truly bonkers on here 🤣🤣

Wow there is some abelist fucks on here arent there.

Am I not allowed to go for a walk then because I need to sit down half way round?

@LST with respect that's not a 'picnic' and I don't think anyone is objecting to people with disabilities needing to rest on a walk.

Walking is my only 3 exercise now everything else is shut, and I have dodgy joints that need to be used. If I walk 6 miles, no food. If it’s a long walk day and I walk 12 miles there’s a good chance I’ll faint if I don’t eat something - not good if I’m restricted to being in the city on my own.

I believe the picnics that are forbidden are the ones that take place at the start or end of the outing, not mid-session refuel stops. Obviously I can’t just stop off at home and eat mid-exercise because that would mean going out twice 😄

I was going to say people should use common sense, but of course it's not that common...

If we go out for a long walk with DS7, we take a snack for him, he really needs a couple of longer walks a week or he goes stir crazy. I think if twice a week we walk for two hours or so and take a bottle of water and a banana for him that's fine. If we took sandwiches and crisps as well that would be taking the piss as it's not needed.

But having a different type of food doesn't change Corona risk.

@KitKat read the thread again. There are posters astonished that people have to sit down on a walk.

Listening to LBC earlier some caller called into to say he was utterly disgusted as he saw a family with sandwiches outdoors.... people have really have lost the plot, everyone knows you can only eat sandwiches indoors because if you don't they turn into COVID particles

Wearing Hunter wellies whilst carrying a coffee to go.

Once again the law is being misquoted. Please if you are going to post with such knowledge take the time to read the law and not quote Bill Muggins a d then start arguing about it

The Health Protection Regulations don't say you can't have a picnic at all. It is an interpretation (with which I agree) as to the primary purpose of the leaving premises is, ie to take exercise and not to socialise. However I would Interpret that to mean that there is no law to stop you eating or drinking whilst out, but the purpose of leaving the home must not have been for that purpose. If a police officer happened to see you and a friend sat in a field with a rug out, with a large spread of food and Prosecco , they may have reasonable grounds to suspect that the purpose you are there is for a socialising purpose and not exercise. They would have to prove this beyond all reasonable doubt so would need to question you whilst under caution to ascertain your motive and discount any reasonable excuse, ie you might be diabetic and need to eat more than a fit and well person (think the Prosecco would take some justifying). This is an example of why virtually all fixed penalties that are reviewed are overturned as the evidence just isn't there

What it doesn't stop you doing is having a drink and a sandwich whilst out walking. This is something I do as I stop at a shop half way a d buy a sandwich on some days.

NOTE Matt Hancock has just said on the Downing Street briefing that long walks and bike rides are fine and 7 miles is definitely local...what he doesn't want is people going to the other side of the country. He also said that exercising with another person is social contact and that is fine...presumably it mustn't be the primary purpose

This is the legislation:

1.—(1) No person who lives in the Tier 4 area may leave or be outside of the place where they are living without reasonable excuse.
The exceptions are:
to take exercise outside—
(i)
alone,
(ii)
with—
(aa)
one or more members of their household, their linked household, or
(bb)
where exercise is being taken as part of providing informal childcare for a child aged 13 or under, one or more members of their linked childcare household, or
(iii)
in a public outdoor place, with one other person who is not a member of their household, their linked household or their linked childcare household,

Cat at

Good call. If worst comes to worst I'll just sit on my banana peel !”

Nooo! You might slide off, hit the floor, break something and need an ambulance 😬

@10storeylovesong

Ffs this is the problem. I'm not one of those saying lock everything down. I am praying for the schools and nurseries to stay open. I am going for a walk with my friend this week. I mind my own business and am not obsessed with what my neighbours are doing. But here are a group of reasonably intelligent human beings arguing that their human right to sit on a bench and eat a banana, or a packet of crisps, or anything else, outweighs everyone else's human right to try and stop the virus spreading as quickly as it is. Eat before you go out; eat when you get home. Its not difficult really, is it? I have 2 young kids - when I took them out for recreation I took hundreds of snacks. Now I take them out for exercise and I give them a snack when we get home. They are 3 and 7 and they understand and can accept that. Why are you wasting time and mental energy arguing whether you can eat a banana on a bench?

Exactly this 👏

If you are walking so far that you need a snack and a rest i suggest you shorten how far you are going. I am so sick of people looking for loopholes to suit themselves.

This. But they are not as big as they used to be.

@BearandaSpare

Why on earth does it matter? Nobody ‘needs’ to be eating or drinking outside in bloody January in the middle of a pandemic. The government have surely got better things to do than having to clarify things like this, just use common sense ffs 🙄

This

Haven’t the government clarified for those confused “no socialising” end of.
Exercise is exercise, not an excuse to sit and eat outside or stroll about catching up with a friend. You can eat at home and catch up over the phone with your friends.
Just do it. It won’t kill you if you stick to the rules for a short while. It may just save a life and help the nhs save many more (covid and no covid related)

This I think you're deliberately trying to come up with scenarios to suit yourself. You can leave the house to exercise. The assumption is that exercise isn't out for hours and hours. Food shouldn't be necessary. If you want to take a snack for a child- fine. You aren't supposed to sit around for an hour having sandwiches, snack, drinks, etc. it's all pretty straight so tears and common sense- and yet people seem determined to invent situations. Go out for a walk for an hour. Go home and feed your child.

And this Why on earth does it matter? Nobody ‘needs’ to be eating or drinking outside in bloody January in the middle of a pandemic. The government have surely got better things to do than having to clarify things like this, just use common sense ffs 🙄 very well put

People seem to have forgotten that the rules are to stop the spread of Covid.
A flask of tea, a Yorkie bar, even a four course meal doesn't increase risk.
You are allowed to meet one adult for exercise.
Exercise has not been defined in law.
Neither has local.
Or what constitutes socialising.
So until it is clearly defined in law everyone is both right and wrong.
It's Schrödinger's picnic.

@HOS8595

Some people are batshit. Questioning the OP for eating a fucking banana!!! What the fuck has the world come too😂😂

Sit on as many benches at you want op and eat as many bananas as you want. A banana isn’t a picnic. It’s actually laughable the people on these boards.

Thank the lord. The insanity that we are challenging someone eating a banana on a bench .....what has happened to us-have we all gone loopy? I'm not going to keep reading....I can't face the 'leaving traces of the virus on the bench brigade'