If you are cancelling plans/think we should have another lockdown

[Maddymorphosis]

Would you be prepared to do the same next winter, and the one after that and so on?
Last December I heard a lot of "It's just one year"
People not seeing family for "just one Christmas".

Are you prepared to do it again, and going forward maybe every time there's a new variant in winter?

@Maddymorphosis

That's exactly the point "I'd rather skip Christmas this year to see my family all healthy next year." But surely you said the same thing last December, so will that be 2 Christmases in a row now ? And will you say it again next year ?

Yes. I'd absolutely, unquestionably, without a single moment of hesitation prefer to spend Christmas with my immediate household and have a video call with my alive parents who I get to see in person in a couple of months, than have a big family Christmas this year and dead relatives next Christmas. I don't think that's a particularly controversial stance to take. And people will die of all sorts of preventable things Covid runs rife.

@Maddymorphosis

Would you be prepared to do the same next winter, and the one after that and so on? Last December I heard a lot of "It's just one year" People not seeing family for "just one Christmas".

Are you prepared to do it again, and going forward maybe every time there's a new variant in winter?

Not cancelling plans here. I will be going to stay with my parents for a days like I do every year. I wont judge people who prefer to stay at home though. You do you.

Cancelling plans, yes. Lockdown, no - we should be able to deal with future variants with vaccinations and common sense.

No I'm not changing plans .not that l have many. We are going g to my DP Christmas do tonight. Personally I'd rather stay in and watch country file.not because of covid but because I'm very unsociable 🤣.
I don't think there will be another lockdown the country can't afford it.if there is it makes not much difference to us we will still be working anyway.
DP works in retail so exposed everyday to loads of people. I work in are home and test 3 times a week. If we get covid so be it.

I’m astonished by this thread as it’s entirely opposite from my experience IRL. Everyone in my circle plus family is doing LFTs as standard before going anywhere, but we’re going everywhere!

Between now and Christmas I’m going to two gigs, two Christmas meals with family, a boozy work lunch, two evening meals out with friends plus two work trips to Scotland and the southeast. I’m lucky that none of my immediate family we’re spending Christmas with are vulnerable, and the older people are urging us to crack on as usual.

If everyone is vaccinated, and we’re doing daily tests, And it’s legal, I can’t understand why we wouldn’t live our lives?

And it’s legal, I can’t understand why we wouldn’t live our lives?

Because MN is full of people who think everyone should live the way they do - and if they're scared, we should be as well.

@RedskyThisNight

I don't get the obsession with seeing people at Christmas being so much more important than seeing them rest of the year. So having to stop social events in December, whilst allowing them the rest of the year doesn't seem such a bad thing. For every person that love Christmas there seem to be 3 that find it a chore, so perhaps making Christmas less of a "thing" is a positive decision!

My Mum died before the pandemic but, if she'd been here and been told she was spending Christmas on her own she'd have been devastated. To her it was a family time and was special, despite seeing people the rest of the year. Had she still been alive last Christmas she'd have been spending it with us, lockdown or not.

I think you are a tad dramatic.

Being careful and not going to christas parties is not the same as not seeing ANYONE during christmas.

Everyine will have their own limits depending on their own circumstances.

Personally, Im avoiding restaurants and poubs. aka lots of people wo a mask on. I am teaching at a University and I am wearing my mask most of the time, even when we are told we can take them off.

I still take the train, I still go places and see friends and family. At home.

I could support a curfew like there was in France for a while.

That doesn't mean I want another lockdown which is an entirely different beast.

@Oakdene good for you.
It’s all or nothing because many of us were put in tier4 for Christmas last year and it was illegal to ‘sit round the fire pit’ having a lovely old time with family.
Also, when you have elderly parents who you want to see at Christmas, sitting round a fire pit in December hardly cuts it does it?

Because MN is full of people who think everyone should live the way they do - and if they're scared, we should be as well

And claim ‘because I am not an arsehole’ while behaving toward others very much like an arsehole’

@DaisyWaldron why would you relatives be dead if they caught covid?

This is up to the virus, not us. If hospitalisations rocket again…and if it carries on circulating, and carries on mutating.

This has happened. We can’t turn the clock back. I’m sure the dinosaurs were pissed off after the meteor strike..

Honestly, a mix. We've always stuck by guidelines, so Christmas last year was quick doorstep visits at a distance to deliver gifts and say hello. None of the family wanted to take advantage of the Christmas day free pass as there are a fair few vulnerable family members.
This year we will be with one other household who haven't been mixing extensively with others, but will not be seeing extended family at any point.
Completely honestly I wouldn't be bothered with locking down every winter, I find the Christmas visiting with certain family members tiring and difficult. However I wouldn't want it for the sake of most people as it tends to have a negative effect on most of the population.

No, I’m not happy with restrictions this year or any further years for covid. Obviously if something with the fatality rate of Ebola and the transmissibility of measles comes along I’d reassess that.

I’m done with my DC’s life and opportunities being restricted for something that’s virtually zero risk to them, we’ve done our bit and it’s our turn now. If that means in the longer term some people who are at serious risk from covid have to live their lives a bit differently then that’s unfortunate.

We are carrying on with our plans, as normal.

Yes, I would do pretty much anything to protect my family. Before the first lockdown was announced, as a family we'd chosen to isolate to protect someone vulnerable and I would do it all again in a flash. I've had covid with mild symptoms and toddler DD was asymptomatic but not everyone in my family might be so lucky. People have lived through wars etc for years so reducing social contacts for a few months isn't so bad in the grand scheme of things.

So you're prepared to give up any sort of social events or celebrations every year in December?

Hardly dare to admit that it's probably the one thing about covid I don't mind. A ready made excuse to avoid large social events and 'celebrations'. Family is different, of course, but we are far flung so tend not to travel at Xmas anyway. Years of experience.

@FatBettyintheCoop

FFS OP! Grow up.

Thank goodness people of my parents generation weren’t selfish fuckers during WW2 moaning about missing a proper Christmas for 6 years despite living with the risks of being killed and struggling with rationing.

BINGO

And it’s legal, I can’t understand why we wouldn’t live our lives?

I also want to live my life and don't want another lockdown.I don't want to end up isolating over Christmas. I don't want my nearest and dearest being unwell. Because of those things, I make choices that maximise the chance of getting the outcome I want.

I really don't understand the logic of some people that boils down to "I don't want a lockdown and want life to be normal so will opt to have lots of regular large gatherings in the knowledge that's how the variants spread".
Some people seem to say they want one outcome (life back to normal) but then behave in a way that is highly likely to delay life getting back to normal.

Will I be seeing any elderly family for Christmas?

No. Absolutely not.

Will I see friends and family a similar age to me? Within reason and knowing their personal situation and how much they are testing.

Going to a massive works party or large gathering with other people? Not a chance.

Its about managing and minimising risk. Not completely eliminating it.

I think there's a big difference between cancelling large indoor events and a lockdown.

No we shouldn't have lock downs the North can't sustain them unless there is more financial help. I know people who have lifetime awards of DLA who now don't qualify for PIP. There wasn't the choice to just switch jobs for them, as there wasn't for working parents etc. Then we've got the deaths because of lock down and they include children and young people. Let's not call for lock down when more investment is what's needed. The Torys can't carry on turning our county's health system into one you'd recognise in a more disadvantaged country. We need the old style of funding for education as well.
This isn't going to be popular but seeing very elderly relatives over Winter becomes a personal choice. You'll have better outcomes over summer. There's a new virus around which is lowering the natural age of death down to what it once was, we need to accept that. Perhaps because my Father, other relatives and friends are from across Africa, I have a different opinion than to someone who has the privilege of living for generations in the UK. We've told Africa, Pakistan and Asia to just get on with preventable diseases for decades.

Fwiw, I'm ECV and my adult children are low paid essential workers.

@nordica

Restrictions are not a choice or something anyone wants, if they are brought in then it's out of necessity. To think anything else is very close to believing in conspiracy theories.

These threads are getting seriously tiresome now. It's a virus, we can't just decide to ignore it and hope it goes away.

If you find these threads tiresome then why are you coming on to post then? 😂

And I absolutely will be seeing elderly family this Christmas because they want to see me. Anyway they have had their boosters so are arguably better protected than I am right now.