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.

People talk about “hindsight is a wonderful thing” but there are plenty of restrictions that I thought were cruel and overreaching at the time (and said so, and received mocking and unpleasant answers on here from posters who I am sure won’t show themselves here). And they were. Don’t tell me that we didn’t know. Some of us could see many of the long term impacts of some restrictions, and didn’t think those negative consequences were worth it (I am not talking about all restrictions here), and I am seeing that in my work and personal life now - I was right. It’s shit being right about that and it’s shit to be told that we only know this in hindsight.

Which restrictions at what points @RichTeaRichTea?

@RichTeaRichTea

People talk about “hindsight is a wonderful thing” but there are plenty of restrictions that I thought were cruel and overreaching at the time (and said so, and received mocking and unpleasant answers on here from posters who I am sure won’t show themselves here). And they were. Don’t tell me that we didn’t know. Some of us could see many of the long term impacts of some restrictions, and didn’t think those negative consequences were worth it (I am not talking about all restrictions here), and I am seeing that in my work and personal life now - I was right. It’s shit being right about that and it’s shit to be told that we only know this in hindsight.

Yes exactly that - I could see that too. I said as much to people and they just looked at me and said stuff like well we have to trust the government, they are following the science etc etc even though we could see the damage play out in front of our own eyes. I feel strangely disconnected from many friends and family now who went along with it all and insisted that it was all necessary and for the greater good. I feel very alone most of the time now in my life.

Lockdown was terribly hard but we did need to have some restrictions because otherwise the sickness/death toll would have been unmanageable. You can't compare what we are doing now with original covid or Alpha because for both we had an unvacciated population.

It is offensive that the government is seeking to denigrate the efforts of ordinary people simply to cover their own arses. People did what was asked because they cared, and the majority of people understood how grim lockdown was.

@Lilifer - I know how you feel and you are not alone. It scares me when I look at countries like Austria, New Zealand, Canada and Australia too as the way they are still treating their citizens shocks and appalls me and I worry that a new and more dangerous variant will land us right back at square one. I sometimes feel that I will never be able to totally relax again as I now know how quickly rights and freedoms that felt completely secure can be snatched away.

We knew very early that outside transmission was minimal, children were rarely affected, transmission from surfaces was rare etc. I remember looking at a death rates table in March 2020, realising that the risk of covid to me was minimal and lower than lots of other risks which I take regularly and from then I never feared it on my own or DS’s account. That data turned out to be essentially correct. The science at the time didn’t justify a lot of the policy. And some things should never have happened regardless of the potential affect on covid rates - no one should have had to die or suffer serious illness or giving birth alone or been put in solitary isolation for months and children playing outside with other children should never have been criminalised.

No. The restrictions at that time were put in as it felt necessary and who knew which way covid would go

Now, with the benefit of hindsight, we feel they were unnecessary

That's the beauty of hindsight though

@GirlInACountrySong

Some of the restrictions were 'unnecessary'....which ones??

Where do I start.

Let's take Queen Covid, Nicola Sturgeon's, "do not leave your council area" rule for starters. I live in one of the smallest local authority areas in Scotland. I could walk for 20 minutes or drive for 5 and be in three other different local authority regions. But the "rules" were that you should not leave your local authority/council area unless for work, education or medical treatment.

Made NO sense. People in Highland region had half the country to exercise or visit, you could have quite legally driven 180 miles from John o'Groats to Fort William for a wee day out, but I was breaking the law driving 5 miles into Glasgow to go to Morrisons or Tesco?

Pile of utter pish, totally pointless and all about being "Not Boris".

Or Mark Drakeford commanding that all the "non-essentials" sections in Tesco in Wales be taped off so people couldn't buy a book or new shoes for their kids.

[quote nojudgementhere]@Lilifer - I know how you feel and you are not alone. It scares me when I look at countries like Austria, New Zealand, Canada and Australia too as the way they are still treating their citizens shocks and appalls me and I worry that a new and more dangerous variant will land us right back at square one. I sometimes feel that I will never be able to totally relax again as I now know how quickly rights and freedoms that felt completely secure can be snatched away.[/quote]

Yes I know what you mean. It's like a nightmare it really is. It's like some kind of alternative universe that we have slipped in to unwittingly 😢

@GirlInACountrySong

No. The restrictions at that time were put in as it felt necessary and who knew which way covid would go

Now, with the benefit of hindsight, we feel they were unnecessary

That's the beauty of hindsight though

No, that's what you're not understanding! You might have thought these illogical and disproportionate measures were necessary at the time but there were lots of us that didn't and still feel very angry about it. It's like you're trying to justify your support for these restrictions by saying nobody could see an alternative. Unfortunately, that's just not true.

You can walk but you can't sit.
You need vitamin d, but you must limit your time outdoors.
You need to get fit and healthy, but you mustn't go to the gym.
No more than 5 people in a house because covid knows when there's a 6th person.
You can remove your mask when seated in a restaurant or pub, but you had to wear it when standing. Because the virus can't go below a certain height. This explains why kids were mostly ok
You must keep your distance from others. 6 ft. But line up to get into a shop.
I'm sure there was one where it was against the rules to meet my sister in her home, but I could have met her in a pub.

@Flyonawalk

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.

Me too when really it meant as an adult I don’t feel I am

@MarshmallowFondant

Or Mark Drakeford commanding that all the "non-essentials" sections in Tesco in Wales be taped off so people couldn't buy a book or new shoes for their kids.

I don’t know how he’s got away with his approach

I find listening to him even maddening ‘we did the difficult things’ gngng

@TheChip - Thank you for making me laugh! So much of it was utterly ridiculous when you look back and I still find it alarming that so many people didn't even question it and are still not questioning it now.

Oh yeah and the best one was how my kids could sit beside their friends in class all day long, but they were not allowed to spend time with each other outside of school. Not even outdoors.

Or Mark Drakeford commanding that all the "non-essentials" sections in Tesco in Wales be taped off so people couldn't buy a book or new shoes for their kids.

ridiculous

[quote nojudgementhere]@TheChip - Thank you for making me laugh! So much of it was utterly ridiculous when you look back and I still find it alarming that so many people didn't even question it and are still not questioning it now.[/quote]
This is still the case for my 18 year old DS at Uni in Scotland.

Most Uni is online. For the laboratory sessions he is permitted, he is masked up, socially distanced, sanitised, limited numbers of 10 rather than 20.

Then at lunchtime, they all take their masks off and have lunch together in the student Union.

Makes TOTAL sense.

I know, that was insane. I work in a school and at the moment 'to stay safe' have to wear a mask when I walk into the over-crowded staff room but can remove it the minute I sit down and start drinking my cup of tea as though this somehow creates a protective force field around me. We're all grown adults and know what we're doing is completely mad yet we play along with it anyway. It's truly bizarre!

It would be an hilarious movie to watch, watching people follow rules that make no sense. Not the pandemic side though. Its just scary that this is real life.

I don't think it is hindsight, it is rewriting history.

Maybe the exact nature of the restrictions could have been better - but if we had not significantly cut contact between households in the original wave the admissions and deaths would have been enormous.

IMO people are cynically rewriting history now to suggest no restrictions were ever needed.

No one is saying the restrictions were not incredibly difficult. I think the limits on those who lived alone in particular were extremely tough. And care home residents. But then so many died anyway - would it have been better for more to die?

@nojudgementhere

I know, that was insane. I work in a school and at the moment 'to stay safe' have to wear a mask when I walk into the over-crowded staff room but can remove it the minute I sit down and start drinking my cup of tea as though this somehow creates a protective force field around me. We're all grown adults and know what we're doing is completely mad yet we play along with it anyway. It's truly bizarre!

To me this does make sense. It is about how much time you are maskless and the fact that people have to eat/drink to stay alive.

Of course anyone can be a dickhead and hold their tea for the whole time in order to keep their mask off, but that's on them.

What has been frustrating throughout is people want some kind of perfect system. The only perfect system would be to lock us all in forever, so everything we do is going to involve some transmission. But that doesn;t mean we should just accept rampant transmission.

The decisions are made at system level, an attempt to manage the flow of hospital admissions.

@Rrhuth - If it was really that dangerous to be in the staff room though then shouldn't we just be honest about this and split up at break/lunch times to eat and drink in separate rooms? The fact that so many of the rules are illogical and do nothing to actually mitigate risk undermine any respect I have for them. It feels like we're all acting out these ridiculous charades so that the government can pretend they did their utmost to keep us safe but not actually do anything that might genuinely help, such as sorting out proper air filters/ventilation etc.

Taping off playgrounds seemed fucking disgusting at the time. It isn't a hindsight thing.

Socialising outside should never have been stopped..

Limits on being able to go outside once a day should never have happened.

We knew being overweight was a HUGE risk factor, one of the biggest alongside being elderly and yet we were told to shut ourselves indoors and even had the suggestion of 1 hour is plenty. I mean, you were seeing people joke about lockdown weight gain but the glaringly obvious that this then puts them at MORE risk flies over the heads.

We shouldn't have been shutting people in, we should have been encouraging people to get fit, to get out and about, to meet their friends and families for hikes in the countryside etc.