Nobody is going to accept restrictions on household mixing this Christmas. They have to know that. Unless they make it literally illegal and an arrestable offence and even then many people will happily take the risk and argue the toss later if needed. Plus I think there would literally be riots. And everyone will suddenly need their child’s godmother for childcare anyway as demonstrated by our PM.
I am a doctor and I don’t underestimate COVID at all. But this government has utterly mismanaged it all along, we’ve somehow ended up with the worst of both worlds in the UK, some of the worst restrictions as well as being among the highest death rate and infection rate.
A huge part of that is the constant mixed messages - the pandemic is over, we should all get back to the new normal, back to work, GPs and hospitals to go back to normal, freedom day, nobody wearing masks in Parliament etc then all of a sudden they make a u-turn and say the pandemic isn’t over, life isn’t back to normal, people should be cautious and wear masks. They need to make up their minds and stop veering wildly from one side of the debate to the other and be a bit more truthful with the public that yes there is still some risk and we are not able to just ignore COVID much as everyone would like but neither at this point are the admission and death rates high enough to shut everything down again. They have pandered to (or are part of) the anti vaxxer anti masker lot at everyone else’s expense here and are now trying to row back on it but too late and the damage is done. Plus they don’t seem to have the courage of their own convictions, until we see Parliament full of masked MPs, good luck trying to get the public to do it.
Most of the public from bitter experience won’t even get a PCR test for COVID symptoms for various reasons but it doesn’t help that this government have made a complete hash of the messaging on testing (at the beginning, trying to pretend testing isn’t necessary and doesn’t matter instead of fessing up to the fact that they don’t have enough tests oops, and now not spelling out to people that a PCR not a lateral flow is needed if you have possible symptoms - but then they also need to update the symptoms for delta and make sure the PCR labs are up to scratch).
I mostly blame this government rather than the public for how badly we have suffered during the pandemic in this country as their management of it has been a litany of errors (except for the vaccination roll out but they are losing even this accolade now), although I do think peoples selfish nature has sadly come to the fore as well. But maybe that is natural in a situation like a pandemic where people feel under threat.
So if the government are reading this! Some of us are not fooled, and know you have done a SHIT job and have blood on your hands as well as making the country suffer through unnecessary misery. You need to do better. And it starts with not reacting to what the public think and showing some strong leadership in a crisis by practicing what you preach and thinking carefully about all the implications of what you preach, and being more honest with the public and learning from your mistakes. Yes we need a proper inquiry. And to keep the memorial wall and hold formal events at it, but it would be nice if you put a bit more focus on stopping adding to those red hearts.
And PS stop having a go at GPs, we weren’t born yesterday and know what you are trying to achieve even if the public seem to be fooled into thinking you’re somehow giving a shit about the average person on the street rather than trying to privatise healthcare so people pay twice over (as I don’t see you giving back peoples taxes which were previously used for the NHS once it’s gone), we become like the US where you go bankrupt if you are unfortunate enough to get cancer, and your mates get yet more money to put in their pockets. And yes Boots we see you too.