For a lot of people, it took BorisWineGate before they were able to feel any compassion for those who suffered due to some of the OTT restrictions of 2020

[greenteafiend]

Because there are a number of people (on here and in other places) who are now finally happy to show sympathy for those who gave birth alone, died alone or were unable to say goodbye to loved ones or hug a suicidal friend, even though they spent most of 2020 supporting even the most insane measures, repeatedly calling for even harsher ones, and saying the most horrible things to people who tried to talk about how desperate they were feeling. And then spent most of 2021 demanding more and tougher restrictions too.

You know who you are. And you can sod off with Boris, frankly.

I see that ghastly Owen Jones (the eternal barometer of weasle-word turncoat politics) is now trying to pivot in this way on Twitter. I'm happy to say that he's being mocked soundly.

I'm with you

I totally agree. The whole thing about the parties at No. 10 feels like a bit of a pantomime/side show to me.

People are just preoccupied with "Tories bad" when there are much bigger issues at play. Like the fact that the public have been subject to some hugely damaging policies without them being assessed for impact or proportionality - obviously not talking about all of the restrictions but some should never have been unquestioningly accepted. People in some other Western countries continue to live with pointless and overly authoritarian measures.

I don’t agree with you. People followed the restrictions because they thought it was the right thing to do. People sympathised with others who suffered because of the restrictions. I expect most people suffered in one way or another and that’s why they’re so angry now.

Well there are some people who are using it to score political points of course, but I think there is a lot of genuine feeling being expressed. A lot of people suffered during the pandemic, even someone very privileged like the Queen, as has been widely mentioned.

I agree with you. The one thing that shocked me throughout this was how so many people were unquestionably compliant and then wanted further rules so they could be even more compliant.
Woe betide anyone who transgressed.
People went nuts.

Yes well said! You're so right.

I know how you feel.

I am also angry with people who said ‘children are resilient’ when posters talked of the despair and disadvantage suffered by our most vulnerable, ie children and young people.

@Lalalablahblahblah

See this opinion from the OP is just as polarised as the opinions from people calling for more restrictions and 'policing' what other people were doing. The truth is most people followed the rules for the most part because they were scared and they wanted to protect themselves and others. That's it. It doesn't mean most people didn't care about people who were harmed by lockdown.

Agree, fear not just of the virus but of breaking the rules, of being arrested/fined by the police. The innate nature of many to do what was perceived as the right thing.

They were crazy days, I do feel extremely sorry for the people that were hit hardest by the restrictions.

But right now the people I feel sorry for are care home and hospice patients who are still having their visits limited, if at all.

At the time we were facing the threat of the nhs collapse, I’ve spoken to people who worked on Covid wards and it was incredibly traumatic, there simply weren’t always enough people to care for some really sick people, and of course lots and lots of people died at home.

Some of the restrictions were too harsh, and the second wave was a bit better in that way, but I don’t think we were in a position to protest or fight the government, we just had to get through an unprecedented situation. We did lock down too late I think.

I am beyond angry at the Downing St parties because I and so many, the majority of people I think, experienced some trauma from the lock downs and the fact that those people felt they were above the laws they made is absolutely disgusting.

I have consistently had huge sympathy with people who had a more difficult time than me, i don’t think this has changed my view of lockdown, but it’s definitely a new low for the government.

The truth is most people followed the rules for the most part because they were scared and they wanted to protect themselves and others. That's it. It doesn't mean most people didn't care about people who were harmed by lockdown.

Agree. The 2 things are not mutually exclusive. I think the whole modus operandi was to instill a level of fear that would coerce people into complying with extremely harsh measures.(the don't kill granny slogan, for example, or "acting as if you have the virus")

Completely agree. So many “restrictions “ were inhumane. Where were all the outraged people back then?
Giving birth alone for example was always ridiculous. And not based on any “ science”. Happily that did not last long but it affected many women and babies at the time.
I hope this balances the discussion now.
Some rules were completely OTT.
Mind you the U.K. isn’t even that bad in the global scheme of things. Look at what has happened ( and is still happening) in many countries right now but with vaccine mandates etc.

I don’t know anyone in real life with that attitude. But also you can have sympathy with people who suffered due to restrictions whilst supporting said restrictions.

I remember posters on here saying we should be more like China i.e locking people in their houses. crazy!

It's possible to be angry at Boris, feel sympathy for those who suffered and also think the restrictions were needed at the time as it was a new virus and we didn't have the treatments, vaccines and knowledge we have now. The UK was not alone in having strict restrictions.

Personally I've felt angry throughout that people suddenly seemed to care about mental health, loneliness and isolation for the first time ever when it affected them directly. So many people have struggled horribly for decades and frankly no one gave a shit.

In 2020 we had no idea which restrictions were too much. So easy to look back and say it was OTT from our position of vaccines and milder strain. People felt compassion, but following the law at the time was not stupid or too much.

@kickupafuss

I don’t agree with you. People followed the restrictions because they thought it was the right thing to do. People sympathised with others who suffered because of the restrictions. I expect most people suffered in one way or another and that’s why they’re so angry now.

Sorry, but no. Some on here were disgusting in their attitudes to others who were quite clearly struggling mentally or in great distress over a situation and were looking for support and help.

There were sympathetic people but they were also targeted with abuse.

@CarrieBlue

In 2020 we had no idea which restrictions were too much. So easy to look back and say it was OTT from our position of vaccines and milder strain. People felt compassion, but following the law at the time was not stupid or too much.

I disagree - I think it was pretty obvious that many of the restrictions were hugely damaging even at the time. I will never forget the poor thirteen year old boy who was buried alone by workers in full PPE as none of his family were allowed to attend the funeral or the brothers forced apart by cremotorium staff when they tried to comfort their grieving mother. I missed seeing my nan during the last two months of her life and she died alone, scared and confused in a carehome.

I have been more traumatised throughout this pandemic by the authoritarian, heavy-handed and often nonsensical rules than anything else and I don't think we're out of the woods yet. You only need to look at the people shrieking for vaccine mandates for the NHS and the no visitor policies at hospitals/carehomes to realise that. I hope there's a full inquiry into all the restrictions at some point and a commitment made to the UK people that we never go down such a dark path again.

I said it in 2020, I said it in 2021 what was needed was harsh restrictions on the vulnerable. Although that was the scientific answer to the problem the ethics of it was impossible for the public to swallow so we all lived with horrible restrictions for no reasons other than ethics. The politicians had the data they knew they were at very little risk and lived how we all should have been living

@nojudgementhere - we did not know that those restrictions weren’t essential. Of course the effect was awful, of course now we have a different perspective but at the time we had no idea. Hindsight is being very much relied on now.

I think we are now in great danger of allowing a future pandemic to escalate to even worse levels because we think we know best before we have any information.

I hope we never are hit by such an unprecedented situation again, sadly I think if we are it will be far far worse.

I don't agree with you.

Of course I felt compassion for anyone ill/dying/giving birth/suffering mentally or who was affected by the lock downs for any other reason. I think we all were a little bit, but for some people it was just awful.

But it had to be done. Our containment measures were similar to those in most other countries, certainly in Europe. In Spain they had police patrolling the streets accosting anyone who didn't have the right permit to be out.

What else could the government have done to prevent even more serious, debilitating illness or death?

Well said, OP.

I doubted at the time that those making the ridiculous rules for the plebs had any intention of following them themselves (looking at you: Prof Ferguson, Dom, Matt, Margaret Ferrier et al). They had behavioural experts all lined up advising how to make people feel more "personally" frightened.

The utter stupidity of taped up outdoor picnic tables and locked park toilets (no equalities impact assessment there!) for starters.

I'm not a covid denier by any means but I am quite frightened by how easy it was to whip the general public up into a state of frenzy.

Support the NHS, of course, but also exercise some rational thought ... is there a problem if somebody needs a wee while at the park? Or sits down while on a walk? NO. But what if LOTS of people did it? STILL NO!!!

I wonder if the Spanish version of MN had posters abusing those in mental distress too, or is that a particularly MN way to show compassion? 🤔

The truth is most people followed the rules for the most part because they were scared and they wanted to protect themselves and others. That's it. It doesn't mean most people didn't care about people who were harmed by lockdown

The OP has a point however, in that there was a huge amount of minimising and gaslighting about the impact from several sections of society (and yes, on here) at the time and immediately after lockdown measures.

It hasn't even gone away. I read a 'you were only asked to sit on your couch and watch Netflix' here a few weeks ago.

I don't see any sympathy in your post for the people who are extremely vulnerable to Covid who have been restricting where they go/what they do since March 2020.

There are people who have not been able to feel safe going to necessary things like hospital appointments and will continue to be unsafe while Covid is so high in case numbers. Some of them cannot have the injections on health grounds, some of them are in the situation that they've had the injections but they are likely to work less well due to their conditions.

They've also missed out on necessary hospital appointment, medical procedures, check up etc because their consultant has been isolating etc

Their mental health has been effected worse than most people's, and their physical health.