Anyone else think our government took the royal piss last Christmas?

[Peanut82]

So the whole Downing Street party last year...this has really riled me. They put us all on restrictions against seeing family and friends while they all had a Christmas piss up with wine, cheese and no social distancing.
My MIL spent last Christmas alone 80 miles away as she didn't want to breach any rules, I know she could have come as she lives alone but she didn't believe it was allowed.
Now there's talk of restrictions on this Christmas? Well I'm sorry but I won't be complying with any restrictions over Christmas, I'll be seeing family as planned.
Our government is beyond useless

@PoorMegHopkins

Why do they want this out now? What are they trying to get through without anyone noticing? Hmmm.

You’re assuming they’re clever, savvy planners who don’t do anything without a good reason. But honestly I think they’re genuinely as useless as they look. It’s not a dead cat, it’s not a sleight of hand distraction from the Afghanistan evacuation leaks, they’re just a shambling bunch of incompetents.

I gave birth to my first child in April last year, I ended up having a home birth so that DH could be with me. My family didn’t get to see their first grandchild or hold her. It was heartbreaking but I followed every rule hoping that that would somehow fix things. Our second child is less than a month old and I was once again prepared to follow the rules and not spend Christmas with family if it came to that. They can fuck that now. I live in a community that was treated like shit in lockdown and our human rights were forgot about. My grandfather died in lockdown, he only saw my DD through a window, didn’t ever get to hold her, and I didn’t see him for over half a year before he died. I know it’s not half as much as what others went through but I’m still dealing with the affect it had on my mental health. I won’t listen to this government again. They are appealing.

How anyone can condone this is beyond me.
I know that out of millions of people not everyone followed the rules to the letter , but I think we all did a much better job than most of the government did at attempting to follow them as much as possible!
Everyone I knew followed all the rules , even if they didn't really want to!
Who will follow anything now ?..

They so obviously did. What disrespectful, selfish arseholes.

There’s quite a few mps who broke the rules by visiting their friends and parents. Unbelievably several had recently had a positive covid test.

I want to know why these mps were not frightened of passing on covid to their elderly parents. And I want to know why they were not at all worried about getting covid this time last year at their party.

@GoldenOmber
I think (?!) I hope you are right. But people say his ineptitude and bumbling is an act. Im both angry about the party but also concerned about the potential dead cat.

[quote PoorMegHopkins]@GoldenOmber
I think (?!) I hope you are right. But people say his ineptitude and bumbling is an act. Im both angry about the party but also concerned about the potential dead cat.[/quote]
Agreed. The bumbling is well played but I don't buy it. I think it's really quite insidiously staged. They're realised people think they're incompetent and run with it in order to do things right under our noses whilst we're gawping at the 'dead cat'.

milly74 What would you have done differently though?

My colleagues were pretty fed up of having to be in everyday, risking ruining what Christmas and holiday break by getting ill.

A load of civil servants staying late at the office for drinks would not have had me getting loads of friends round the house or anything.

yes, incompetence

but the Hancock leak really seemed set up to get shot of him

[quote PoorMegHopkins]@GoldenOmber
I think (?!) I hope you are right. But people say his ineptitude and bumbling is an act. Im both angry about the party but also concerned about the potential dead cat.[/quote]
It is an act, but it’s not hiding a Machiavellian genius behind it either.

[quote BunsyGirl]@lightisnotwhite Exactly. We had a “party” in the office last year. I wonder how many other people did?![/quote]
We had a quiz on Zoom. And the software broke. It was rubbish.

tbh i cant believe anyone followed such ridiculous rules at xmas time anyway - everyone i know just did what they want and more fool those that didn't. Even now, with everything people know, some still follow every rules to the letter - some aren't even official rules - just made up rules. Its like noone can think for themselves.

Im sure the media knew about the party business meeting but if it was released at the time or shortly after it would have probably been quite damaging to the narrative that they were supporting when everyone was stting themselves about it - it made no sense to release it. Now however I honestly think the tide may have turned and they are starting to feel safer in "challenging" that same narrative - OK not the big stuff but just chewing away at the edges.

I do however think we have been well and truly "trolled" for quite some time but "It is far easier to con people, than it is to persuade them to admit that they have been conned."

I’ve just watched Sky News covering the story and one of the journalists doing the press review said that there’s more leaks to come about this.
The government have been despicable, firstly in even holding a party when everyone else was in lockdown but to then spill endless denials which nobody believes. My elderly dm spent Christmas on her own because, like so many others, she wanted to follow the rules. We never saw my in laws at all either and my FIL died this year, it’s heartbreaking to know that we weren’t there for his last Christmas nor for the coming months when restrictions were so tight.

It’s not “more fool” for people who were prevented from visiting dying relatives or having proper funerals. It’s one thing if you had a quiet Christmas, but if I had missed the last hours of a close relative’s life, as many did, I’d be furious.

Its important to remember

Last xmas families were allowed to meet indoors in smaller groups
work places could meet and hold larger meetings

Not excusing but lots of 'the rules' people are quoting were not actual rules last year at xmas

[quote BunsyGirl]@milly74 Our office was never fully closed, not even when there was a full lockdown. It wasn’t illegal to open an office.[/quote]
Social distancing rules. It made it impossible. Small kitchens, small communal areas. We would have been closed again within a week or two of opening with a covid outbreak. 600 people in a relatively small space...
On top of that given our tier 3 status most of us would have actually breached rules by going in as would have been travelling out of area. Technicality but our area was strict!
we did open slowly after last lockdown where we could go in informally, with controlled access and finally returned in August. How long for anyone's guess.

@Watapalava

Its important to remember

Last xmas families were allowed to meet indoors in smaller groups
work places could meet and hold larger meetings

Not excusing but lots of 'the rules' people are quoting were not actual rules last year at xmas

Families weren't allowed to get together in tier 4 which was a large part of the country last year.

People died alone because of the rules. They’ve made mugs of people who couldn’t visit dying relatives.

I'd forgotten about Tier 4. Tier 3 was bad enough.......
Confess that we did occasionally venture to Tier 2 to have the luxury of of a meal out sat indoors. I am sure we weren't the only ones!

From a personal perspective so far in this pandemic: £thousands of lost earnings for both myself and DH, both kids developing MH issues, GCSEs a fiasco, watched DH's Aunty 's (passed from covid) funeral on an ipad. Wasn't really fussed about missing out on festivities. Wanted to stick to the rules and hopefully keep people safe.

Turns out this country's leaders felt differently and will probably spin this party business, Cummings style, to get off on a technicality.

Not surprised those bereaved who couldn't be there for their loved ones feel betrayed and mocked.

We unfortunately had the funeral on zoom experience. It was at the time when only 10 were allowed to attend so....horrible to see that empty church knowing we should have been there.

@Watapalava

tbh i cant believe anyone followed such ridiculous rules at xmas time anyway - everyone i know just did what they want and more fool those that didn't. Even now, with everything people know, some still follow every rules to the letter - some aren't even official rules - just made up rules. Its like noone can think for themselves.

Well, some of us didn't want to infect our elderly relatives. It wasn't about doing what we were told, it was about recognising that there was a very real risk and that mingling at that time just wasn't sensible. Nobody had been vaccinated yet and cases were through the roof. No way I would have wanted to be on a packed train and then staying with elderly people.

Do you think covid isn't real or something?

@Watapalava

Its important to remember

Last xmas families were allowed to meet indoors in smaller groups
work places could meet and hold larger meetings

Not excusing but lots of 'the rules' people are quoting were not actual rules last year at xmas

Not in the north we weren't

While Number 10 partied and giggled about how hilarious it was to break the rules they'd made, children were banned from having a friend round to play indoors throughout winter - hugely curtailing their play and social development.

And their education has been disrupted for three academic years - so far.

Was that giggling video before or after they implemented tier 4 and cancelled Christmas for millions of us?