Page 5 | Article about the Cheltenham Races. Makes me so angry!

buttheywereonlysatilites · 2021-02-20T18:52:25+00:00

Seeing it all in black and white makes me even more angry than I already was at our government and SAGE at the time. I'm on other threads now supporting the reintroduction of outside activities, but not like this. What the hell were they thinking?! [angry] [[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/20/virus-dispersion-hub-packed-racecourse-cheltenham-festival?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/20/virus-dispersion-hub-packed-racecourse-cheltenham-festival?CMP=Share]][[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/20/virus-dispersion-hub-packed-racecourse-cheltenham-festival?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other iOSApp]]p_[[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/20/virus-dispersion-hub-packed-racecourse-cheltenham-festival?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other Other]]

knittingaddict · 21/02/2021 12:31

@Roussette

Why does anyone think this is an anti racing thread? Nothing could be further from the truth for us, it's been a huge part of our lives. However, letting Chelt Festival go ahead was batshit crazy.

I don't understand either, but coming from some I'm not surprised. They seem to think that everyone's out to spoil their fun.

I've never been to a race, but would love to go. Our daughters rode horses for years and both did jumping. One would have worked with horses as a career, but was allergic to horses. I still think Cheltenham and other events should have been cancelled.

draughtycatflap · 21/02/2021 12:32

@Beaniecats

It is an attack on horse racing. I'm particularly defensive of Cheltenham, it means a lot to NH racing Local businesses do very well from the racing economy so locals need to think about that The world was turning normally then but hey blame racing

Yeah alright, calm down Mayor Vaughn.

PracticingPerson · 21/02/2021 12:34

I was at the time when they said it could go ahead.

I am now thinking about it.

It was clearly very reckless. This is one of the examples where when people say 'could anyone have handled it any better than Johnson?' I think - yes, actually, almost anybody else would have handled it better

HoldontoOneMoreDay · 21/02/2021 12:43

My DBro was at Cheltenham and said it was like the last days of Caligula, much more so than normal. There was a real 'fuck Covid' spirit to the place. People knew they were taking risks but they felt invincible - remember at the time it was 'just bad flu', the PM was shaking hands right left and centre and a dose of bulldog spirit was going to get us through it better than Johnny Foreign.

JingsMahBucket · 21/02/2021 13:27

@HoldontoOneMoreDay I hope your brother didn’t catch Covid and escaped getting sick at all. It’s madness that so many big events went ahead.

Original poster

buttheywereonlysatilites · 21/02/2021 14:00

@HoldontoOneMoreDay

My DBro was at Cheltenham and said it was like the last days of Caligula, much more so than normal. There was a real 'fuck Covid' spirit to the place. People knew they were taking risks but they felt invincible - remember at the time it was 'just bad flu', the PM was shaking hands right left and centre and a dose of bulldog spirit was going to get us through it better than Johnny Foreign.

Our local pub put a video on FB of the last night before lockdown. It was rammed. There was singing and a lot of hugging. My DH is a regular, the place and people are really significant to him. He'd stopped going a good few weeks earlier and was horrified by what he saw. This is why people need guidance!

OP posts:

Beaniecats · 21/02/2021 14:00

@HoldontoOneMoreDay

My DBro was at Cheltenham and said it was like the last days of Caligula, much more so than normal. There was a real 'fuck Covid' spirit to the place. People knew they were taking risks but they felt invincible - remember at the time it was 'just bad flu', the PM was shaking hands right left and centre and a dose of bulldog spirit was going to get us through it better than Johnny Foreign.

Maybe we need a bit more of that attitude and would be better for it

buttheywereonlysatilites · 21/02/2021 14:06

This reply has been deleted

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knittingaddict · 21/02/2021 14:08

Beaniecats you really are surpassing yourself on this thread.

Original poster

buttheywereonlysatilites · 21/02/2021 14:09

you're, in case you pick me up on the error (you seem like the kind that would.

OP posts:

knittingaddict · 21/02/2021 14:11

[quote buttheywereonlysatilites]@Beaniecats ok so now I think your either a troll or a member of the cabinet. I genuinely hope that isn't your attitude, but if it is then you are part of the problem. [/quote]
I don't think a member of the cabinet would type what Beaniecats does. Not with a straight face anyway.

mnahmnah · 21/02/2021 14:17

@Beaniecats

Please don’t come to Chester. Your attitude from started exactly why I don’t want 5,000 of you per race day descending on us

mnahmnah · 21/02/2021 14:18

*demonstrates

Beaniecats · 21/02/2021 14:23

[quote mnahmnah]@Beaniecats

Please don’t come to Chester. Your attitude from started exactly why I don’t want 5,000 of you per race day descending on us[/quote]
Nothing you can do to stop us

Be amazing to be back on course

itsgettingwierd · 21/02/2021 15:18

@Beaniecats

It is an attack on horse racing. I'm particularly defensive of Cheltenham, it means a lot to NH racing Local businesses do very well from the racing economy so locals need to think about that The world was turning normally then but hey blame racing

The pandemic has been an attack on the world.

I love your passion for the races but you seriously need to realise this about government and scientist saying a mass event - that has been proven to be a spreader event - was safe. When it wasn't.

Neither were the Paddy's day celebration, football or gigs that went ahead.

Thinkivepulledsommat · 21/02/2021 15:19

@knittingaddict

Thinkivepulledsommat, but that man was at the races spreading it around which was precisely the problem.

You say "in retrospect", but at the time, when I was listening to reports on the radio, it was clearly a terrible decision. The same for any events where large numbers of people were congregating. I imagine that the government are well aware of this now.

Yes, I totally agree. I just found the article a bit disingenuous. At the time I was more concerned about everyone being allowed to go off skiing in Feb half term. I think that’s what did for us, not Cheltenham. It just seems odd that the article focused on that one event, not all the foreign travel that was going on well into March.

And then we didn’t even learnt that lesson after the first lockdown and allowed everyone to go off to Greece!

LadyEloise · 21/02/2021 16:07

itsgettingwierd
The St. Patrick's Day Festival in Dublin ( and elsewhere in Ireland) was cancelled.
That was a huge thing to do.
We knew then the seriousness the pandemic was being taken by government.
Schools in Ireland closed their doors on Thursday the 12 th March.

itsgettingwierd · 21/02/2021 16:30

Yes I thought Ireland had moved quicker than U.K. (although our devolved administrations are also moving at different times!)

I remember it's Ireland's announcement that made some parents of kids in our school remove theirs earlier than our lockdown.

We'd been in class all day oblivious to news and at school gates they all filled us in!

HoldontoOneMoreDay · 21/02/2021 20:00

[quote JingsMahBucket]@HoldontoOneMoreDay I hope your brother didn’t catch Covid and escaped getting sick at all. It’s madness that so many big events went ahead.[/quote]
Thank you @JingsMahBucket, that is kind of you to say. He didn't catch it, but that was good luck rather than good judgement.

EarlGreywithLemon · 21/02/2021 22:57

People do look at government for guidance, especially when it’s a new virus that no one knows much about. And businesses do. My husband’s company only moved to WFH when the official government WFH advice came through. He was the last of our friends still in the office, commuting on a packed tube every day. I was on mat leave at that point and was in tears when he left in the mornings. I managed to persuade him - just- to at least start work at home and go in a bit later to avoid the worst of rush hour. I was reading the news every day whilst feeding our small baby, in disbelief at what our government was doing.
Also, I think we have the gung ho attitude of the government (“nothing to see here, carry on, just wash your hands”) to thank for a lot of the many many people who refuse to this day to take COVID seriously enough - the anti masker brigade etc. That early message stuck, and many never moved past the “it’s just the flu” stage.

ssd · 21/02/2021 23:07

@CKBJ

The government were blinded by £ signs. Led by a incompetent PM who didn’t even go to all of the cobra meetings. A layman could see what was happening you didn’t need to look far. Cheltenham,Crufts, Liverpool match, whatever should have not gone ahead. As another poster said the government has blood on their hands. Did they learn? No! We had the abysmal unlocking after the first lockdown including all back to the office, kids all back to school with little mitigations, unis back, eat out to help out, holidays abroad, I could go on. Then far too slow to act when numbers and deaths rose. If this was actually an industry rather than a government, jobs and performance would be scrutinised and as far I can see they are not worthy of their jobs. God help us if they mess up unlocking

You mean

God help us when they mess up unlocking

Multicover · 21/02/2021 23:08

I think the historical analysis of the disease spreading rapidly throughout the UK and Ireland because of Cheltenham and Crufts will be damning.

MrsFezziwig · 21/02/2021 23:13

@Beaniecats

Of course it's an anti racing thread why else is Cheltenham being singled out?

Er, because the article in the OP is about the Cheltenham races?

OnlyTheLangoftheTitBerg · 21/02/2021 23:25

I go to Cheltenham every year with a friend, have done for decades now. We didn’t go last year because we felt the risk was too high, whatever the official line was. However in various racing groups I’m in on social media, there was a huge amount of that gung-ho spirit in evidence. I’d say the split was 3:1 people metaphorically sticking up two fingers to the virus and stating they were going regardless : those more cautious who gave up their tickets.

marieantoinehairnet · 21/02/2021 23:30

Well I mean the government got it's sick out this weekend and slapped it in the EUs face when it offered to host that football championship later this year...

They couldn't give two fucks about us residents.

What a stupid idea, inviting football teams from all over Europe to descend on us?!