First ministers briefing

[Trichford]

Is there one on today? If so what time will it be? Thanks

The 5 miles is guidance. It's another one of these points that she keeps threatening to put into legislation if we don't behave ourselves.

It's just guidance, with a ridiculously low limit to show how different we are from England. A sensible solution would be to say to limit drives to half an hour or so, because I can see how you don't want crowds of people driving for hours to beauty spots, but 5 miles is silly. We've driven 10 miles to Cramond which I think is in the spirit of the thing as we wouldn't drive to the Highlands and back in a day for example.

From the plans though, it doesn't look like that is due to be eased until Phase 3, but maybe she'll relax on the guideline distance earlierhighly unlikely.

I'm keen to know when we can go across the English border. My neice and nephews DGran in Scotland has terminal cancer and whilst they can't really spend time with her, they'd like to do a day trip up from England and stay at ours overnight. But suspect I would get grassed to the police by the neighbours if I let them - phase 2 seems to allow people inside so I'm really hoping they can do it then. Otherwise the reality is that their DGran might die without them seeing her again.

All our rural car parks and some roads are shut so we struggle to get anywhere. Trying to discourage people travelling but also stopping locals, it's a joke. I'd go where you can but check out local council pages first to make sure roads and car parks are open

Does anyone know off the top of their heads in what phase play parks will open? I see some country estate type places have reopened (none quite within the 5 mile limit) but without their play areas the appeal isn't quite the same for a 3 year old.

It says phase 2 for play parks do hopefully not much longer. It's all here www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-framework-decision-making-scotlands-route-map-through-out-crisis-phase-1-update/pages/4/ but they might not do everything in Phase 2 at the start.

@SamSeabornforPresident the playparks are phase 2, although our local one is being used and even the police ignored that the other day.
I woke up in a proper grump this morning, I don’t really care about seeing folk inside but I do care about freedom to travel. It’s the thing I value most about living in Scotland. I can not see me making it through this winter in a very stressful job without getting downtime this summer, and by downtime I mean days out with my children and wee trip away somewhere. At the moment the only enhancements available in my life are food and drink, it’s not the best for health.
She needs to start thinking about the nations well-being, and how best to strike a balance so that people maintain or improve their health. I exercise with the kids everyday but there is a limit to what we can do with a 3 and a 5 year old, and with garden centres, golf courses and multiple fast food drive throughs reopened the local roads are busy so it’s got harder to safely exercise in our local area. I almost wish full lockdown was back because phase 1 has made things harder not easier for our family!

@Sweetpotatoaddict

I am absolutely with you. We heavily rely on being outdoors as a family and I am really starting to struggle with not being able to get away. The 5 mile thing is utterly ridiculous. I don’t want to go to beauty spots - I want to go to isolated areas where I know I will only see a few people - rather than the hundreds and hundreds within our local park.

Phase 2 still says local travel but doesn’t give a suggested mileage. I hope to goodness it’s increased. I did see a suggestion somewhere that wild camping will be allowed - if that’s the case I will be packing the car and heading somewhere quiet for the weekend irrespective of distance.

5 miles is just a guidance to discourage people doing the beauty spit thing - it's not a set rule, you can go somewhere you know will be quiet how we far it is if you want to

Interesting discussion brewing here about whether asymptomatic carriers are a major driver of spread. The WHO says they are not, and efforts should be concentrated on isolating and contact tracing symptomatic people instead. It could explain the observed lack of spread from children (who rarely show symptoms), and has obvious implications for lockdown, which is based on the assumption we could all be passing it on without knowing. If that assumption is proven to be false, lockdown could be eased sooner.

Phase 1 hasn't made any difference to me either.

I want to go just a wee bit further for dog walks, but car parks are still closed, so that is out. I'm hoping the National Trust, Forestry Commission etc. will start opening carparks in Phase 2.

Our local recycling site isn't open yet, and although our Council has opened some, they are still only accepting the same things we can put in our bins!

I suppose I could go to the local Garden Centre... and that is about it!

Our local pick your own farm has opened. Pretty excited about that.

Actually, our pick your own farm has opened too. But, it is one of our favourite venues for lunch, so it won't be the same!

Ours is doing take-away lunches for picnics!

Ours is doing some takeaway food, but I’m not sure how much. I hope to go soon and find out!

Well i'm just back from the supermarket, the normal path to the car park is all set out for people to get in, and there was a queue. I'm walking down the road part beside the path to get back to my car with my trolley, the trolley is heavy and something is slipping so I slow down very slightly and a woman bashes right into the back of me (no trolly, just her) as she is rushing to get to the back of the queue - which is quite far away and round a corner anyway. So complete body contact with her chin hitting off my shoulder (i'm quite tall). Doesn't really bother me as I'm not that paranoid and also think I've had it. However, she was all rigged up with mask and gloves. Just left me thinking wtf! Folk in the queue were just glaring. I mean if you are maintaining proper distance then there is no way that me slowing slightly or even coming to a dead stop would have resulted in a collision. She was obviously trying to sqeeze past to get on the path, but she shouldn't be doing that anyway as you can't maintain more than a couple of feet away on the path itself, so then she was walking a foot or so away from everyone else in the queue.

I bet she wouldn't have been as close if she hadn't been wearing a mask.

And another thing (while i'm on a roll :o) is it now the done thing to have a fag while you are waiting in the queue?

I've had someone ahead of me in a queue light up a fag. It encourages me to socially distance by more than 2m.

I had the woman in front of my with her zimmer trolley/support thing light up and when I'd joined the queue the guy who would have been in front of me, waved me to go in front as he was going to have a fag, woman in front lit up after him - he'd also let someone else in front so he was two behind me by then. I was the unhappy filling in a Benson & Hedges sandwich :(

The queue wasn't that massive either - we were about 5 minutes or so waiting.

East Yonderton Pick your own by Glasgow airport hopes to be open end of June with bookable slots
my DD just needs some real contact with friends school she is OK not naughty or anything just bored she has made huge numbers of anime drawings two stuffed toys etc but we are running out of different craft projects

I like the people with masks down for a fag.

Your experience just confirms that most people are selfish twats Wax.

East yonderton farm is great, kids love it there.

Yep, tits as it was, as it is and as it always will be.

The whole world revolves around the minority of anti social arse holes and we as a society spend an inordinate amount to deal with them. If it wasn't for arseholes we wouldn't need locks and other security devices, we'd all be able to walk the streets in safety, we wouldn't need prisons etc etc. Think of all the money that would be available to support the vulnerable if we didn't have to spend our money of the gobshites?

www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/scotland/coronavirus-in-scotland-virus-spread-earlier-than-thought-5c7md5w0n

Not surprising given that the school hols were 7—18 Feb ish.

yes, i caught it from someone, who caught it from someone who'd been in Italy skiing at Feb half term hols, I thought we already knew this? I had symptoms from the 14th March which fits that narrative perfectly. In fact for a couple of days previous to that I'd had trouble with getting breathless climbing the stairs at work and took the lift. At that point we had no clue that someone sitting near me was in hospital having developed pneumonia and was tested positive.

I know someone who flew home from Wuhan late November and had their temperature checked before boarding the return flight.

This whole thing makes me so bloody angry. Admittedly, being told I'd be furloughed for another few months today hasn't lifted my mood.