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Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

Doctor Carrot said:
This just highlights the utter fuckwittery of our lockdown. The bloke says 'where does it say we can't go on out front garden?' and he's right, it doesn't say that anywhere. The copper, otoh, is trying to police with the vaguest of vague guidelines. It's a fucking shambles.

The government should just come out and say you can't go out beyond the boundary of your front garden except for shopping once a week and 30 mins exercise once a day. To go into any shop you need a permit that you're allowed once a week. Anyone not abiding by that gets fined. It's really fucking simple. China managed it, better still South Korea has managed to get this under control without even a lock down. Us? Total fucking shambles while the bodies pile up each day.
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I liked the attempt to criminalise standing in your hall with the door open.

"Are you going indoors, or are you refusing to go indoors?"

"I am indoors"
 
Right, so I've got Easter eggs for my parents who live a couple of kilometres away, was thinking of using my one outing of the day to cycle over there, put them outside the door, let them know and maybe have a quick chat from over the road on opposite pavement then go straight home, not going anywhere else.
One of them is shielding.

Wondering whether I should however, be nice to check on them IRL too.
Would you do this and think it ok or not? Cheers
 
ddraig said:
Right, so I've got Easter eggs for my parents who live a couple of kilometres away, was thinking of using my one outing of the day to cycle over there, put them outside the door, let them know and maybe have a quick chat from over the road on opposite pavement then go straight home, not going anywhere else.
One of them is shielding.

Wondering whether I should however, be nice to check on them IRL too.
Would you do this and think it ok or not? Cheers
Click to expand...
Seems fair enough to me :)
 
ddraig said:
Right, so I've got Easter eggs for my parents who live a couple of kilometres away, was thinking of using my one outing of the day to cycle over there, put them outside the door, let them know and maybe have a quick chat from over the road on opposite pavement then go straight home, not going anywhere else.
One of them is shielding.

Wondering whether I should however, be nice to check on them IRL too.
Would you do this and think it ok or not? Cheers
Click to expand...
It was my MiL's birthday last Sunday, so my wife and I walked over with some presents, left them on the door step, then watched through the window and sang happy birthday while she opened them. She really seemed to appreciate it.

I say take your folks their Easter eggs
 
ddraig said:
Right, so I've got Easter eggs for my parents who live a couple of kilometres away, was thinking of using my one outing of the day to cycle over there, put them outside the door, let them know and maybe have a quick chat from over the road on opposite pavement then go straight home, not going anywhere else.
One of them is shielding.

Wondering whether I should however, be nice to check on them IRL too.
Would you do this and think it ok or not? Cheers
Click to expand...
I'm increasingly wondering if 'saying hello to old people' shouldn't be counted as 'necessary'. Appreciate it's not. But this is going to go on for a while and there are people literally not seeing a soul all day, no Internet. Seems like it wouldn't hurt for them to have a relative to talk to now and again at a safe distance, given that we're allowed to go shopping and skateboarding as much as we like.
 
ddraig said:
Right, so I've got Easter eggs for my parents who live a couple of kilometres away, was thinking of using my one outing of the day to cycle over there, put them outside the door, let them know and maybe have a quick chat from over the road on opposite pavement then go straight home, not going anywhere else.
One of them is shielding.

Wondering whether I should however, be nice to check on them IRL too.
Would you do this and think it ok or not? Cheers
Click to expand...

Seems fair enough to me too.

It seems to me that if you're actually putting some thought into things then the chances are you're doing alright, and that is the majority of people I think. It's people just popping in and out of places as if things are normal that need to have a word with themselves. They're in a minority though, albeit still a significant one for now.
 
ddraig said:
Right, so I've got Easter eggs for my parents who live a couple of kilometres away, was thinking of using my one outing of the day to cycle over there, put them outside the door, let them know and maybe have a quick chat from over the road on opposite pavement then go straight home, not going anywhere else.
One of them is shielding.

Wondering whether I should however, be nice to check on them IRL too.
Would you do this and think it ok or not? Cheers
Click to expand...

I would absolutely do that. If one of them is shielding I'd make sure that they didn't bring out a drink that you'd then give back with your filthy outside germs all over the glass, but apart from the 2/3m rule, I'd have no problems with what you propose to do.

(Wider point) Mental health is going to be a huge casualty of this - there's no point avoiding any chance of getting C-19 if you then top yourself through loneliness and despair....
 
Doctor Carrot said:
I may be coming across wrong. It's not the busyness that bothers me it's people coming in for one or two items several times a day that gets my back up. What you describe is exactly the case but I just wish people would get what they need for one or two days at a time and not one or two hours at a time.
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I don't want to tell you what it's like where you work, but for my part I think we notice transgressions a lot more than we notice people behaving themselves. So we don't notice the vast majority of our neighbours who're abiding by the lockdown because there's nothing to notice, only the ones who have a loud party in their garden... we don't really notice the hundreds of people who pass through the shop once, only the two people who make multiple trips, the one or two who take the piss with social distancing, etc etc.

So even though the vast majority of people are sticking by the rules, because the ones who don't are the ones we remember, they take up more space in our heads than they really should do.
 
killer b said:
I don't want to tell you what it's like where you work, but for my part I think we notice transgressions a lot more than we notice people behaving themselves. So we don't notice the vast majority of our neighbours who're abiding by the lockdown because there's nothing to notice, only the ones who have a loud party in their garden... we don't really notice the hundreds of people who pass through the shop once, only the two people who make multiple trips, the one or two who take the piss with social distancing, etc etc.

So even though the vast majority of people are sticking by the rules, because the ones who don't are the ones we remember, they take up more space in our heads than they really should do.
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Yeah I expect you're correct to a large extent. It's fear and stress that underlies it all though. Interestingly, just had a supermarket worker on LBC call in tears about the same thing. It's people coming in every day and the blase attitudes that some people have to it. While you are probably correct in what you say it doesn't change the fact these people do exist and they're causing unnecessary fear amongst people who work in these environments.
 
Cheers all
No I wouldn't accept anything that would go back in the house and would hope my dad would be careful with the bag and contents I leave outside
 
Doctor Carrot said:
Yeah I expect you're correct to a large extent. It's fear and stress that underlies it all though. Interestingly, just had a supermarket worker on LBC call in tears about the same thing. It's people coming in every day and the blase attitudes that some people have to it. While you are probably correct in what you say it doesn't change the fact these people do exist and they're causing unnecessary fear amongst people who work in these environments.
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absolutely - tbh, even though it is a tiny minority, if you've got hundreds of people passing through each day it still makes your job suddenly a lot more dangerous than it used to be.

But whatever the government does - and it could do better - some of these people will still exist, and they'll still be coming into the shops and putting workers in danger. Difficult to know what can be done other than giving the workers as many ways to protect themselves as possible, and giving them the power - and backup - to exclude the dickheads when necessary.
 
Doctor Carrot said:
To further highlight just how fucking shit people are being with this. The little shop I work in took substantially more money than we do on a normal night before a bank holiday and we've been closing 3 hours earlier than normal since 'lockdown' started.

The social conscience in this country us utterly bizarre. Lots of lovely things like mutual aid and clapping for carers but 'oh, gotta keep buying shit because I don't know what else to do.' I can now, more than ever, see just how spot on Romero was in dawn of the dead with the zombies aimlessly wandering around a shopping mall.
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I completely get where you’re coming from. I’ve been covering the odd shift in a local shop and I arrive home wiped out exhausted from the low level chronic anxiety about how shit everyone is about keeping their distance and the effort of taking extra-extra measures to keep safe.

And I’ve been saying for at least a year “This is what the zombie apocalypse looks like, we are living it now”. Beer zombies, phone zombies, trash culture zombies, climate change zombies, political inertia zombies, people sleepwalking and shuffling towards doom.

In the past I always mostly loved everyone just by virtue of their Beingness. I’m far less tolerant of wanton idiocy nowadays.

And the thing about “I’m alright Jack” and everyone out for themselves: that’s no doubt a huge factor, I reckon, but consumerism is a major factor too: being able to just nip out to get something, click and have it turn as if by magic the next day, never having wait, instant gratification, credit etc all means we’ve not had to plan ahead or anticipate. For decades. But also, really importantly, with so much penury, a huge number of us have been living hand to mouth and just in time for decades too, especially since the 2008 shitstorm. So it’s a synthesis of not having to think ahead, and not being able to plan ahead.






ddraig said:
Right, so I've got Easter eggs for my parents who live a couple of kilometres away, was thinking of using my one outing of the day to cycle over there, put them outside the door, let them know and maybe have a quick chat from over the road on opposite pavement then go straight home, not going anywhere else.
One of them is shielding.

Wondering whether I should however, be nice to check on them IRL too.
Would you do this and think it ok or not? Cheers
Click to expand...

I would definitely do that.
 
By the way...

I went out to bring my bins in the other morning and an elderly lady was sitting on my front wall having a bit of a rest. I said I would go around her to get my bins so she didn’t have to move and she was keen to reassure me that she wouldn’t give me the virus because she was fine. She insisted that without symptoms, she’s not going to pass on the virus. I changed tack and told her I could give it to her and she again insisted that because I was clearly not suffering with any symptoms it was impossible to give her the virus. I tried several times to tell her you can pass it on without symtoms. No idea if it went home.

But it made me realise that probably some significant proportion of the population just don’t grasp or understand how contagious this is.
 
Looks like we have wankers here too...

Police in Worthing have warned the coronavirus lockdown is ‘not a holiday’ after officers were deliberately spat and coughed on. In a statement posted on Facebook yesterday (April 9), a spokesman for Worthing and Adur Police said: “We are frustrated that we are having to attend numerous reports of BBQs and parties in Worthing.

“Lives are at risk because of a selfish few who continue to ignore advice and deliberately spit and cough on our officers who are trying to save lives.” He warned ‘people are dying’ and pledged to take action against those who ‘continue to flout the law and endanger others’.

www.worthingherald.co.uk

Worthing police officers ‘deliberately spat and coughed on’

Police in Worthing have warned the coronavirus lockdown is ‘not a holiday’ after officers were deliberately spat and coughed on.
www.worthingherald.co.uk www.worthingherald.co.uk
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WTF is wrong with people?
 
killer b said:
absolutely - tbh, even though it is a tiny minority, if you've got hundreds of people passing through each day it still makes your job suddenly a lot more dangerous than it used to be.
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I am really amazed at just how differently I've felt about my job in the space of weeks. Before it was an easy, friendly place to work with regulars I can chat to in a nice community shop. Don't get me wrong it's still like that but it's so much more stressful now.

As SheilaNaGig said it's the low level anxiety that constantly bubbles away under the surface that's the most knackering, along with the busyness too. Every cough is noticed ten fold now and there are times when I actually feel people breathe on me. What are normal things that people do, like sighing, has become a sudden source of anxiety. It's horrible. I hope there's not too big a residue of social distancing left after this. I really miss hugs :(
 
Me too Doctor Carrot

I was kinda coasting along with things like living alone and not being able to socialise til my little sister rang to say she was worried about how lonesome I was on my own. She did it with love and support but it tipped me into realising how much I’m missing my the company of loved ones. And now I’m feeling it quite hard...
 
Cerberus said:
Long time lurker on these COVID threads (which really have been excellent and an example of much that is great about U75) first time caller and I share your sense of blame toward the Government.

I just don’t think anything will change. In fact, if you offered me a free bet, I’d bet that in the long term Boris and his pals will come out of this smelling of roses
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I'll take that bet. £20 to the server fund or The Trussell Trust?
 
ddraig said:
Right, so I've got Easter eggs for my parents who live a couple of kilometres away, was thinking of using my one outing of the day to cycle over there, put them outside the door, let them know and maybe have a quick chat from over the road on opposite pavement then go straight home, not going anywhere else.
One of them is shielding.

Wondering whether I should however, be nice to check on them IRL too.
Would you do this and think it ok or not? Cheers
Click to expand...
are you a government minister? :hmm:
 
I'm really sorry it's so scary for you Doctor Carrot - I totally understand why.
So many keyworkers working without enough/any protection, while health workers are still not anything like adequately equipped with them, on the frontline.

The essential shopping thing is difficult - vulnerable people who don't make 'the list', people still attemptiing to live on very little/ekeing out a pittance on a day by day basis, larger households, only one adult to shop, only one adult to shop with small kids, households with no car, households without shops close by etc etc - I'm not sure how we manage that better?

It looked like China, under lockdown, relied much more heavily on deliveries (with at least some protection offered to workers making deliveries).
How has it worked with other countries with fuller and/or better thought out lockdowns than us?
 
kebabking said:
(Wider point) Mental health is going to be a huge casualty of this - there's no point avoiding any chance of getting C-19 if you then top yourself through loneliness and despair....
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This is going to sound callous, but actually yes there is. If you don’t get it you can’t pass it on to anyone else. The kind of thinking in the above is illustrative of the wrongness of the mindset of people about the lockdown/distancing rules, largely because the utter shower of shite that are our ‘leaders’ are not putting the right message across.

The rules are not to protect YOU. They are to protect other people. The risk to any individual person from getting this is low to very low on the whole, however the risk that someone will die from spreading the disease is approaching certainty.

The message shouldn’t be some mealy mouthed abstract protect the nhs, it should be

Obey the rules, or you are killing people.

In my opinion, of course
 
Doctor Carrot said:
I am really amazed at just how differently I've felt about my job in the space of weeks. Before it was an easy, friendly place to work with regulars I can chat to in a nice community shop. Don't get me wrong it's still like that but it's so much more stressful now.

As SheilaNaGig said it's the low level anxiety that constantly bubbles away under the surface that's the most knackering, along with the busyness too. Every cough is noticed ten fold now and there are times when I actually feel people breathe on me. What are normal things that people do, like sighing, has become a sudden source of anxiety. It's horrible. I hope there's not too big a residue of social distancing left after this. I really miss hugs :(
Click to expand...

I feel for you both (& all workers in shops large & small all over) lately just being temporarily trapped inside a shop - even just stuck in a queue, or trying to find everything on the list to avoid a 2nd shop - makes me anxious, a whole day of it would be :( .

The only place I didn't feel anxious was in the local post-office where the lady who works there was (as always) behind a glass screen - both safe from each other's breath, we had a proper cheery chat.
 
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